
^1j«,>\uqr^ 




Class jLMi_ 
Book .B^^- 



SPEECH 



9c 



^^:z^<- 



MR. HILL, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, 



MR. BENTON'S EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. 



In Senate, May 27, 1836— On Mr. Bestoh's ex- 
punging resolutions. 
Mr. PiiEsinE^T. t'e preamble and resolution of 
the Senator fVcm Tennessee, (Mr. White,) which 
have been introduced as a substitute, are of that 
hermaphroditechnracter that pleases neither side, 
and being abimfloned on all hands, must fall to the 
ground. They are only important so far ah they 
countenance the principal argument that das been 
urged against expunging liie record; and it is re- 
markable that the burden of the song has been, 
not that the condenuiatoiy resolution was right, but 
that it was a violation of the constitutitm tu ex- 
punge what was cK arlv wrong from tiie journal. 
"E:ich House shall keep a journal of its pro- 
ceedings, and from time to time publish the s;ime." 
Here is a positive act to be performed; and when 
the act is don.-, the injunction is (ully complied 
with. If it yore intended to apply to all journals, 
as relating to this or that particul:-*r sessi(m of the 
Senate, the ianguas'e would have been so definite 
as not to be mistaken. If it had been intended to 
keej) and pres-erve the original manuscript journal, 
language convening that idea would have been 
used. Tlie mandate of the constitution has been 
fully complied with, when the journal has been 
kf^pt a sufficient time to "publish the same." 
Copies are then muUiplcd, so there can be no 
mistake as to what the journal contained; and any 
subsequent vote of either House to expunge any 
particular part of any single copy of the journal, 
is no more a violation of tlie injunction to keep a 
journal, than it is of that part of the constitution 
which authorizes the people to elect members of 
the House of Representatives. 

TheSeii.tor from Virginia, (Mr. Leigh,) probably 
as an ofi'sel to the resolutions recently passed by 
the Legislature of his State, directing the Senators 
from that State to present and vote for expunging 
Vthe condemnatory resolution from the journal, a 
few diys ago presented a memorial from John 
Vimberlake, and others of that State, against ex- 



pungmg. These memorialists consider the propn 
sition to expunge to be "a pinin and pa], able vie 
latum r.fthe constiiution, and ;t is remaikable tha 
the;- off t-r the following as the only reason agains 
Its constitutionnliiy. 

"Suffice it to say, that to their humble iindet 
standmgs, 'to ksi-er,' as here used by the coHSti 
tiition, means Xo preserve, and that the lafte- clius 
of the constitutional provision, as previously que 
t. d, furnishes a key to the interpretati.n of tha 
which precedes it, since it would be obvioiis'y im 
possible to publish the journal from time to lime, i 
such journal had not been kipl and preserved." 

Here is an admission thi.t the journal i^ to b 
preserved only for the purpose of 'being puhUshed 
What is the inference? It can be no other thai 
that when thus kept, the whole purpose of th^ 
constitution has been complied wuh. I will here 
after make inquiry for what other purpose (hi 
journal can be kept. In relation to the keeinnj 
of the journal of the House of Representaive 
for thiriy-five years, I have received intormatioi 
from the clerk in the following letters: 

House of Representatives, U. S., ^ 
Jipnie, 1836.5 
Dkak Sill: In answer to (he inquiry containec 
in your letter of this niolrning, I have to sta'c tha 
the original rough mauscript journal of the liousf 
of Representatives of the United S'ates (those 
read .ni the mornings) have not been preserved tc 
a period anterior to tiie commencement of the 
first session, eighteenth Coni^res--, (1823, '4 ) 

For your further information, I enclose you £ 
copy of a communication from Mr. Burch on tht 
subject. 

With very great respect, I am, sir. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. S. FRANKLIN, 
Clerk H. R. United Stales, 
Hon. Isaac Hili., 

United States Senate. 



"7 



2 



rid 5%. 



Office, House of Rf.ps. U. S. ^ 

^737776,1836 S 

I entered this office a youth, under John Beck- 
ley, who was the first clerk of th'- House of Re- 
presentatives unner the present Constitution of 
the Unittd States, and who died in the > ear 1807. 

During the recess of Congress lie put mi; at 
wh,U was termed "recording' the journal" of the 
pr< ceding- session, wliicli was to write it off' from 
the printed copy into :>. large bound volume. 1 
inquired of him why it was that it was copied, 
w)ien lliere were. so many printed copies? He an- 
swered that tiie printed copies would pnbibly, in 
time, disHppear from use, Etc. — the laige MS. vol- 
ume would not. 

The "rough journal," as it was then termed.and 
is still termed, being the original rough draft re.sd 
in the House on t!ie morningafter the day of which 
it narra'es the proceedings, was not, and had not, 
from the beginning, been preserved 1 inquired 
the reason, and was answered, that the printed co- 
py was the I ([}cih\ copy, as it was printed under 
the official order vi' the House; and, as errors, 
whicli were sometimes discovered in the lough 
journal, wt-re currecttd intiie proofs of the printed 
copy, the pi ifited copy was ,the most corrs ct, and 
that, therefore, there was no use in lumbering the 
olli' e v.'ith the "rough journal" at'ier it had been 
printed. 

Two of Mr. lieckley's immediate successors in 
oflice, Mr. Magruder and Mr. Doughertj , viewed 
the matttr .IS Mr. Beckley viewedit. I know the fact 
from having callea their attention to th^' subject. 
J often reflected upon the subject, and it appear- 
ed t(,' me to be proper that the "roup,h juurnal" 
should he preservid; although I could not see 
any purpo.se wha ever to be answered by doing 
.so. I often convt rsed v/ith the clerks of the of- 
fice upon the subject,but as we were only subordi- 
nates, tii^ practice was not changed till 1st session 
of t]»e l8th Congress, (1823,'4, ) when I determin- 
ed, without consulting m}' superior,that tiie ''rough 
journal" should no longer he throv/n awxy, but 
be presei ved and bound in voluines; and it has 
been regularly preserved and bound since. 
With ^real lespect, I am, sir, 
Yoiu- obedient bervant. 

.S. BURCH. 
Col. Walter S. Fhankhx, 

Ckrk Hi.use of Bcpresentaives U. >S- 

By these letters it appear-! that tlie original 
minusc:ipt journal, the journal whcli is read in 
the morning of every day, succeeding that of the 
proceedings, was kepi and preserved pi-ecisely long 
enough to answer the purpose designated by the 
mtmorial from Virginia. It was kept long enough 
to be published, Avhen the original journal was 
destroyed or laid aside, and a new manuscript 
copy was taken from the printed published jour- 
Kal. Here are ficts in relation to the journal that 
cannot be g.dnsayed; facts which prove, tliat 
even the destruction of the original manuscript 
journal, after that journal has been printed .nnd 
publi>hed, was never dreamed to be a violation of 
that clause of the constitution, which requires 
each House of Congress to keep a journal of its 
pi'oceedings. For the first thirty-five years, in 



construing the constitution, plain common sense 
had not been driven from our legislative halls by 
the refinement of sophistry — the world of argu- 
ment had not then been turn-d upside down — in- 
genuity had nt)t then contrived to turn a pla'ii 
duty of the representative to obey his constitu- 
ents into a violation of his oalh, and his con- 
science. 

In the year 1823, the Senate of Massachusetts 
passed a lesolution to expunge another resolution 
from tiieir journal, passed in 1813, which the pub- 
lic sentiment had condemned. A member of the 
Legislature of th.at State iov the present year, in- 
foimed me th.'it he recently ex'.'.minel the manu- 
script journal, containing both the expunged and 
expunging resolutions. Both of them were pass- 
ed by an exact vote of the two political parties. 
The olil (edi ral party had the ascendancy in the 
Massachusetts Senate in 1813, and the resolution, 
that it was unbecoming a moral and religious 
people to Firjoice in the success of our army and 
navy, was passed b} the votes of that parly alone; 
and in ten years alterwards, the first time the de- 
m.)ci-atic party had the full ascendancy, that party 
voted to expunge the resolution from the journal. 
The cojistitution of Massachusetts requires the 
keeping of a journil, and directs that the ayes 
and noes of eaci^ branch of the Legislature shall 
be entered on that journal^ but it does not require 
that this journ^d shall be published. In this it dif- 
fers from the constitution of the United States in 
relation to the journals of Congi-css; but the dis- 
tinction makes iiltogeilier in favor of the doctrine 
ofexpimging. In the case of Massachusetts, the 
resolution was expunged, but th'i manuscript 
journal (the onl)' ollicial copy i.t existence) was 
not touched. In our case, the condemnatory re- 
solution may be expunged, and either the manu- 
script record may remain unmolested, or it may 
be ring-marked and crossed, or it may be entire- 
ly obliterated; and ill neither ca:.e can it be con- 
sidered a violation of the constitution, because, 
from the time the journ-il has been kept long 
enough to be published, every printed copy of that 
journal is .m official copy, so that n6 vote to ex- 
punge, nor even any act of defacing the manu- 
script journal, can milit'ate with tlie mandate of 
the cons:itu!ior., vi hich requires each House of 
Congress "to keep ajouin-ilof its proceedings, 
and from time to time publisii the same," after the 
journal shall iiave been kept a sullicient length of 
time to be pih:)Iished. 

Some thirteen years ago, I first visited the 
city of Washington, during the sitting of Congress. 
The Supreme Court of the United States was at 
the same time in session. A gentleman of the 
bar, now of the Senate, from Kentucky, (Mr. Clay,) 
was engaged before the court on oiw siile of a 
case; and another gentleman from the same State, 
(Kentucky,) then, and now, a melnb^2r of the 
Mouse of Represent itives, of somewhat rougher 
a'^pect, (Mr Hardin,) argued the case on the other 
side. I listened attentively to both. The rough- 
er gentleman, in the course of his argument, 
talked of tne practice in Kentucky, and with 
great nonchalance informed the court how he 
gained an important land cause in that State. He 
created, he said, 9. fake or feigned issue before th 



sating- of the court, ami led the antagonist party ( witn the jo.n-nal, mav be accl.lert.ll. V a 

to confine h:s attention exclusively to the tak^n,^ thief may steal it TnYcarrv it ofT ) . ' T-'^' ^ 
of testimony .n rdalion to that feigned issue U-ater or in the e XT/ minn^ "^ ' '" ^''^ 

Keepmg- the real point a secret from the adverse during an evenir^es^io^ a^^^^^^^^^ "lay take fire 
party, h. earned his case »t th. trial by surprise. Secr.lu-y S,m S^pi ht ; '"?J'" ^"'"?'' '^^ 
^^I'^^L-^' "-h-^ Wa.hin.ton, .h.n cil the | The coZluZrf^X^J'o:::^^ telS^ 

uld all thpsf» /-iciimU;..,, ., . ■ . . '^'-P'-- 



bench, smiied at the frank express! >n of the blnnt 
attorney, who told the story as if he redlv thought 
he deservtd crtdit for the trick. ' 

Tlure are many feiffntid issiie.^, Mr. President- 
but feu- who i)raciis« them are as candid ms waJ 
this Kentuci<y lawyer, before the Supreme Cmrt. 
^Ihentlie i.lea was first broach d, tiiat a reso'u- 



laws could .not be i.xpun-ed from the legi.ktlre 
journal of the S.-nat-, because the co^istitution re- 
quires the Senate to keep a journid of its nroceed- 
'»gs. I would not have believed that such a 
lejgned issue couhi be entertained so lontr as 
ready to have assumed the appearance of settled 



would all these casualties or acts by which'X 
journa! sha<I be destroyed, be so many vida! 
turns of the constitution? 



Even if the resoluuon now under consideralion 

without recitmg: it, went so tar a« entu-eiy to ob! 

- .. ^, ,.„... u, .... H r.so.i- ]'\T ''' ?'T'- '■^-^«'^'^^"^' l!'«t sliould be deemed 

tion having no mces...u-y reference to :.ny existing- c3ede",t^t.''''''T'^ " " ''''^ J""-'"""'' ^ ^=*"""' 
laws could not be .-xriMno.^^ i\...„. .i.„ ,,„: ,_._•-' concede thiit the act ' ' ' 



. . "f obliteration would be 

uncon.st.tut.onal. If that resolution werean existin.r 
lavv st.ll intended to be kept in force, the ac ol' 
obliteration would no'; nullify the law annlied 
to a sunpie declaratory resolution that was never 
intended to have the force of a law, the oblite-a 
ton cannot harm the pef>p!e for whose benefit ad 



seriousness, S.uvly, in all the expunging- th' T ^ , ,- • 

heretofore has taken place, it never bef-reentereru""'' "'■'/■' ''"'' '^ '^ ''"'^^ "«* harm them it 
mto the l.e.rt of ma/i to c'onceive such an ohjej! ^^W wo'Th^ F "^'"f '^'- '' '"^ '^o'^'^Utulion, sucl 

•1 ^ '^^ 's worthy or reprobation. 



tion as this. 

It is s«id the constitution requires a journal to 
be kept; and ihe.eioie no part of this juurual can 
be mmiia.td, ^t^uck ou-, or destroyed If it be ui 
imperative con,t.lutional injunction to ru-eserv'e 
there must be some object to be gaintd bv the 
preservat.on. The journal can be us. ful for no 
other purpose, th.m the preservation of evidence 
ot proceedings 



1 marvel much at the pertinacity with which 
this question is attempted to be Ci.cussed ,s Z 
.nfnngement of the constitution. It seems to li e 
tha . by taku.g the ground they do, t.e opponents 
of the expunging resolution blink the rfal quel 

W " Th '' ' ^''' ^PP-V-"--' «f - --ere s^Z 
|Uge. The horns of this altar will not protect 
thcm-i.^e cryof "a violated constitution," as it is a 

AH those parts of the journal relating to laws that ! ^'S^'vTZl!^:\-'"' T^''' T '''^''' "' ''- 
have become obsolete, or to proceed m.^sibrr. so if£ f "b!.terat,o:i ot an infamous record, 
of no consequence, Jre valuil^^Jnt^V^y ect on ci ret^l.aTll^^-^^^ ^^^''^"^ «^ 

ime'resr'^'lH"" ^ -^,^---/'niistory; the piblic was wr^ g -n it e f ' .-olutionto be expunged 
interest could not sufi, r, ,f such parts were ut ' 



^.ih destroyed. The journal of the Senate is 
kept ana preserved for no oth r purpose, than to 
show when and how laws are passed, :,nd it is of 
as much consequence to preserve the engrossed 
Dill or resolution in that branch of the I c'^'isla 
tiire, in which such engrossed bill or resol'uton 
originated, as it is to preserve the journal of pro- 
\o show the progress and history of ih 



cecdin< 



same bill or resolutiyn. 



My object is not, Mr. Presi lent, so much to 
argue the question of power in the Senate to ex- 
punge, as to show that the sentence of condem- 
nation pa.ssedon the President of the United States 
was not only e.xtra-judicial. but>imjust; for Icon! 
ceive It to t)c a most inglorious evasion tha' Sena 
tots now say this sentence of condemnation im- 
puted to the Pres, lent no crim... [f the Senators 
'r \:Z':'T )F'''''0 -"d. Vir.ginia (Leigh) will 



,/i 1 , •■ — wuiii i.uui,»iiana ii 

andthejournarwv;edcs;ro::!;,^b;S;^f;;;!l^''°^' ^-^'" .'^f ---l ch^i^-^f " high 
or. parchment would remain; wh.ch would b evt^lXLi" Tl'^'f'^i '''"""" ""''^^^ -ere almos 
dence of the existence of the law; .nd even if t^ t n i '," I" ^""^^ ^""^ >'^="'^ • ''S''' '''^ v may 

enrolled bul we, ed-stroyed, the la™ 'd l ;' ! '^ ' '^""^'";'« !''-''^^ 
be in existence, if there t^m^^ned any whrre nub , tT '^^ '^'^ ^''''"^^'^ ■>«-. that 

■shed copies, which had been certlLl a" £ m ' 1" sSt Jti:' u'^?^ ^^^^^^ '"''"'^^'^ "' »'»« 
the original. , i ics.ucnt ot tlie United States no criminal in 

The ol^ect of ...ssessing «n official copy of the i !^;d^hr;:;;i;::t S^^^ 
journal of legislative proceeding,, is simp /to pre- 1 the passaire of that rr . '. ^ V ^ '^''^'^'^^ "> 
serve collateral evidence that existing laws nassld ' tnore ?l ufonl ^ n t ""''t ' 'i^ ^P^^'^hes of 
induecourse of legislation: other fvi?;::^; C;;^"o;: r^^:; ;^ 
these journals, .such as petitions on which Jaws I the Senator from kW S .^^ 



_ -•:• ' '„ -"i..i.iiii.^v_o „u muse 

petmon.s, minutes of reference, original drafts of 
bUIs or resolutions or amMidments, may be eqailv 
Mmportantjandyetit will not be ur^ed that the 
destruction or obstruction of these, eithe- weakens 
i^ force ot the law, or violates the constitution 
^nn T r?, ''''o""" "'^-''' '"' ^'''^'^ ^he manuscript 
i^S ° ^^^ ^r"''"= "^'^y ^^ obliterated or de- 
i'^ro^d. The building may take fire, and that. 



It. Re.natb April 30, 1834.-Mr. Clay rose- 
' Never," said he, "Mr. President, have I knoTn 
or read of an administration which expires with 
so much agony, and so little composure and re' 
s.gnatn.n, as that which now. unfortunately, has 
th« control of public affairs in this country It 
exhibits a state of mind feverish, fretful and 
fidgetty [a beautiful alliteration!] bounding 'ruth- 



lessly from one expedient to another, w'.lliout tiny *' 

sober or settled purpose. 

« * *■ * * » 

"Uut I would abk in what tone, tamper, and 
spirit does ihe President come to the benate? 
As a great StaTeculprit who has been ariaigiied 
at the b.ir of justice or sentenced as guilty i" Doea 
be manifest any of tliase compunctious vi^ilmirs 
of conscience which a g'udty violator of the con- 
stitution and laws of the land ougiit to feel? 
Does he address himself to a hiq'h court with the 
respect, to s;iy noticing' of humility, which a per- 
son accused or convicted, would naturally feel? 
No, no- He comes as if the Senate were guilty; 
and as if he were: in the judgment seat, and tiie 
Senate stood accused before him. He arraigns the 
Senate; puts it upon trial; condemns it. He 
comes a-8 if he felt iiimself elevated far above the 
Senate, and beyond all reach of the law, surround- 
ed by unapproachable impunity. He who pro- 
fesses to be an innocent and injured man, gravely 
accuses the Semite, and modestly a>ks it to 
put upon its own record his sentence of condem- 
nation! When before did the arraigned or con- 
victed party demand of the court which was to 
try, or had condemned him, to enter upon their 
records a severe denunciation of their own con- 
duct? The President presents himself before the 
Senate, not in the garb of suffering innocence, 
but in imperial and royal costume, as a dictator 
to rebuk>- a refractory Senate, to command it to 
record his solemn protest; to chastise it lor diso- 
bedience." 
Concluding: 

"The Senator Qi«r. Grundy of Tennessee) 
thinks that there is no coverlet lart;e enough to 
])rotect all the various elements of the opposition. 
He is mistaken; there is one of sufficiently eapa- 
cious dimensions, recently wove at a Jackson 
loom, culled a protest, on which is mirked a vio- 
lation of the constitution, and an assumption of 
enormous Executive power; and the honor<ible 
Senator had belter hasten to jdace himself under 
the banners of those who a'C contending against 
power and prerogative for free institutions and 
civil liberty. And he had better lose no time, 
for the protest is the last stroke upon thel ast nail 
driven into the colTin (not of Jackson — may he 
live a thousand ye.irs!) but of Jacksonismi" 

In a speech delivered at Concord, New Hamp- 
shire, in October, 1834, by a Senator (Mr. Web- 
ster) who voted for the condemnatt.ry resolution, 
I find the following strong and positive assertions: 
'•It is true, that the operation commenci d with 
the Branch Bank in this State, (New IIamps!iire ) 
It was tried to make that bi-nk a political institu- 
tion. Men here applied to the President to make 
the bank at Portsmouth a political bank. I'hey 
wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury to do this. 
These are fads — made known to the world — not 
disputed." 

" It never was asserted, then, tliat the bank 
was unconstitutional — that it was a 'monster.' And 
there was good reason for this silence. 'J'he 
bank had taken no part in politics; no one had 
been wicked enough to bring it into the political 
arena. It is as true as that our fathers fell at 



Bunker's Hill, at Lexington, and at Monmouth, 
that this outcry against the bank was raised be' 
cause ihe bank refused to be made a political en- 
gine- " — Same speech. 

This language was used by that honorable Sena- 
tor about tlie same time that a commiitte of the 
Senate, commonly called the ^f liilewas>iing Com- 
iniltce, reiterated the same and other similar lan- 
guage in justification of the Bank and in condem- 
nation of those who opposed its recharter 

I intend, in the remarks I have to make, to no- 
tice the charge that the " operation coram ;nced" 
by an attempt on the part of the friends of the ad- 
ministration "to make the batik at Poitsmouth a 
political bank;" and tiie statement that the bank 
" had taken no part in politics." The tt slimony 
on which the charge and (JTsclaimer have been 
based, is the authority and word of tiie Preisident 
of the bank. 1 shall confront these statements 
gener;illy, with other statements coming from the 
same quarter; and if 1 shall fail to prove by the 
President of the bank, that the President of the 
bank and the aforesaid Senator charged falsely 
when he charged the attempt to mike the 
Branch Bank at Portsmouth a political engine — 
if 1 sliall fail to demonstr.Ue, on tlie authority of 
the President of the bank himself, that he had 
entered, with all the money of the bank, iito the 
political arena, 1 will concede that the frir;nds of 
the bank have not been quite as much in the 
wrong as the enemies of the bank have alleged. 

I understood the Senator Irom Vuginu (Mr. 
Leigh) to say, there is no prt>«)f of abuses and mis- 
conduct of the; Bank of tlie United States, unless 
we take charges against the bank for evidence 
against the bank. ,f he intends by this to justify 
the resolution of the Senate w hich condemned the 
President of the United States with- ut a hearing — 
f )r it is presumed he would impute t;iese unprov- 
ed or false charges against the bank to the Presi- 
dent, who has iieen assailed as the b.mk's greatest 
enem) — I will answer his allegation, that the Presi- 
dent is guilty, by making the bank fals, fy its own 
charges, and disprove the bank's innoctnce by the 
confessions of the bank's own principal officer. 

The Senator from Virginia saya he is strictly and 
peculiarly a lawyer, meaning, I presu ne, a lawyer 
as contradistinguished from the legiilatoi' or the 
politician. Jtidging from the character of his 
speech alone on the expunging reaoiutii)n, I agree 
that his description of himself is correct; for who 
so well as the mere lawyer can wrap up the plain- 
est proposition in a web of metaphysical subtleties? 
To those who place implicit faith in bun, all his 
propositions and deductions undoubtedly carry the 
weight of mathematical demonstration. To my- 
self his whole speech appeared in the true charac- 
ter of the lawyer, who makes the most for his cli- 
ent; his argument was the .reversal of that rule 
which every plain, unsophisticated mind would 
adopt to convince others of the truth as it had con- 
vinced itself; he seemed to entrench himself in a 
citadel of assumptions, appUed to the case as he 
would have it; and he afterwards m ale all his facts 
precisely to conform to his assumptions. The late 
Thomas Addis Emmett was once coHcerned as a"* 
sociate counsel in a case with Aaron Burr, in wh^ii 



the latter bad the prior management. When the ; the bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshh'C, in the 



case was about comi;-g to trial, Emmelt asked 
l?urr what fiicts they "could prove in support of 
their client r Tlie answer was, ask not what we 
can prove; rather ask what is necessary to be 
jiroved? Here is a specimen of the mere lawyer. 
It v/as in that early ai;e of the practice probai)ly, 
when tiie profe-sion had not learnt to throw off, as 
legislatois, tlieir ex parte character as lawyers, thut 
they wrre excluded from tiie Brit sh Parliament. 
"Sir Richard Baker, in his Clironicle, undei- the 
year 17.36, records, that the House of Commons 
ordered that no man of the law should be returned 
MS knight of the shire, and, if rt turned, that he 
should have no wages." ! would by no means 
recur to this precedent as a parliamentary prac- 
tice at this time binding on either House of Con- 
g^ress. 

The point on which I would first comment, is 
the charge wiiich iias been so often repealed by 
the bank and its friends involved in " the contro- 
versy, relative to the removal of Mr. Mason from 
the presidency of the brancliof New Hampshire." 
'I'his charge was not conjured up until nearly 
three years after the events to which it alludes 
had transpired. It first made its appearance i'i the 
report of a single meinber of the comrniltee of the 



summer of 1829, and the correspondence be- 
tween the board at Philadelphia and the late Se- 
cretaries of the Treasury and of War, form a por- 
tion of the documents relatmg to tlie books and 
proceedings of the bank, called for by the com- 
mittee and communicated to them. They are 
not noticed in the report of the chairman, but, 
in the opinion of the subscriber, arc more deserv- 
in<^ of the attenlion of Conpress and of the nation, 
than any other -part of the papers commented upon 
in the report. An effort,, very thinly veiled, on the 
part of two of the executive departments of the 
General G^jvcrnment, to exercise a control, po- 
litical and pecuidary, over the proceedings of 
the bank and its branches — a control highly ex- 
ceptionable in principlf, and even contrary to 
law, appears to him to be full)' disclosed in those 
papers. He w.ll not permit himself to inquire 
into the motives of the agents in those transac- 
tions. It i.s sufificient for the protection of the 
pubhc inti-iest that tiie projected encroachments 
of power were disconcerted and laid aside." 

So much fv-r the high accu'sations made by 
Mr, Adams against "two of the executive de- 
partments of the General Government." It 
would, perhaps, be a stifticient answer — an an- 



Hbuse of Representatives " appointed on the 15th swer that would forever shut the mouths of all ac- 
of Marcli, 1832, to examine and report on the | cusers — toquotetlie statement of Mr. Ingham in re - 



books and proceedings of the Bank of the United 
States." 

The committee had been in session twenty-four 
d.ays at Ptiiladelphia, (from March 22d to April 
14th) and were about to close the examination 
vrhen the following proceeding was had: 

" On motion of Mr. Watmougii, 

" Re.iohed, That the President of the Rank of 



lation to this matter, written in June, 1832, near the 
time at which Mr. Adams's report first appeared. 
At the time of writing this letter, Mr. Ingham 
was no friend of the administration; and from the 
temper he discovered after leaving the office of 
Secretary of the Treasury, it might well be ex- 
pected that he would be no less willing to see 
any charge of "projected encroachments of pow- 



the United States be requested to furnish the com- er" ei>tabhshed against the admmistration, than 
mittee with copies of the corresptmdence between ' even Mr. Adams himself. Noticing the unauthor- 



himself and the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
Isaac Hdl, late Second Comptroller of the Treasu- 
ry, with reference to charges made against the 
official conduct of Jeremiah Mason, Picsident of 
tlie United States Branch Biuik in New Hamp- 
shire." 

The correspondence, in manuscript, making 
more than forty closely printed pages, was pro- 
duced by Mr Biddle on the instant. It bore evi- 
dent marks of age, having been thumbed till parts 
of it were scarcely lee:ible. The majority of 
the committee, it li. understood, before that day, 
had never heard of this correspondence, nor iiad 
it entered into the heart of mortal m:in concerned 
in this correspondence, exce[)ting Nicholas Bid- 
die himself, to conceive that it coidd be tortured 
into a piirpose or use such as was afterwards made 
of it. It a majority of the committee had time 
or opportunity to scan this correspondence, ih?y 
would by no means s ippose that such an infer 
ence cndd be deducecl fi-om it, as seems to have 
been discovered by the keen optics of a single 
member, (Mr. J. Q.Adams,) and afterwards corw 
curred " fully in all the statements made, and 
principles developed," by another member of the 
minority (Mr. J. G. Waimough. ) Mr. Adams's 
report relative to this correspondence was in the 
words following: 
\ " The complaints made against llie president of 



ized publication ef a confidential correspondence 
nearly three years after it took place, and the 
accusation made in the report of Mr. Adams, Mr. 
Ingliam, in a letter published in the Philadelphia 
Sentinel, says: 

*' But my motives were misunderstood, an! my 
friendly purposes wholly disappointed, and I now 
found myself virtually accused of a desire to ex- 
ert the power of the Governmsnt to seduce the 
oank from its vestal purity, into a base political 
connexion with the administration. 

" Having been promidgated by an ex-President 
of the United States in the legislative hall, and 
thus openly by a dircdoi of the bank, [by a Mr. 
Piatt, at a' public hotel in Trenton, undertaking 
to vouch for the truth of Mr. Adams's statement,] 
it cannot fail to justify this notice. To be silent 
would be to sanction for truth tvhat 1 know to he 
false, and deeply prejudicial to my character." 
» • * * * 

"When the friendly purpose of my letter is 
d'.ily appreci:tted, in connexion whh the repeated 
declarations pressed upon me of the political 
abuses of certain branch banks, in corroboration 
of which it was added that the selections of di- 
rectors were, in many branches, made entirely 
from one political party, it should be rather a 
matter of surprise that my suggestions should be 
so little obnoxious even to severe and suspicious 



criticism. It requires bdt little kiiowlede;e of 
the luinian charaLter to know, tliiit no bank can 
be faithi'uUv and impartiall)' co iducted where t!ie 
directors are se t:ctt.-d from one sect, whatever its 
character may be, pnjvided their selection is made 
with a view io their liectarun opinions; and when 
directors a; e found thus arranjj-ed, however pure 
they may be, it will be alinost in-ipossible to satisfy 
even an enligliteiied pubic opinion, that there 
may not have been some design in the arrange- 
ment. The obvious and natural means to pre- 
vent abuse in such a caSL-, as well as to sa- 
tisfy public opinion, and even to '•.onfoiind cla- 
mor, (wiiich is sometimes necessary in the ad- 
ministration of public affairs,) is to give some 
variety lo the org'aniz^UOii of th:; |Doard. — 
Such were the refl,;ctions which induced the 
suggestion of fornting suitable 'checks anil coun- 
terbalmces' to prtiii-rve a proper equilibr.um in 
the manageir.eiit of the ijistituiion; a measure in 
its conception purely adnionitory and preserva- 
tive, not only tending to prfcvent tlie pernicious 
influence of political nias in the operations of I lie 
bank, but incapable of being pet verted to such 
abuse; sui'gested, too, by ihe cf)nstituiional repre- 
sentative of one-fifth of the whole stcck; forms the 
solitary }wint, kft by Mr. Biddle. on which it is to be 
presumed Air Adams has founded his ^rave and so- 
lemn charge. I shall not now attempt to sliow the 
difference betw ecu a meuiure proposed to prevent, 
and one to promote an abuse, nor enter upon a 
discussion ot the rights of the constituent or repre- 
sentative to advise the agent, or attempt to prove 
that what might propeily have been addressed to 
the directors appointed by the President might, 
with the same propriety, be addressed to the 
whole board. The question of riglit is too clear 
to admit of a doubt. The chai acter of the pro- 
ceeding must theref ire depend on its fitness, and 
the motives which induced :t, on wliate-v.r grounds 
it shall be placed, I am conient to be judged by a 
discerning public. 

" Of Mr. Adams, however unwarrantable his at- 
tack upon me, it seems most fit that I should say 
as little as possible. A. great man has said of him 
'that he could not see the truth:' this case is a 
striking example of the wisdom of that obser- 
vation." 

Mr. Ingham says, in the satTie letter, " the Sec- 
retary cf the Treasury, for the time being, is ex- 
clusively responsible for all the sentiments con- 
tained in his correspondence." 

This explanation of Mr. Ingham, who surely 
could have no interest to exculpate any person in 
the administration other than hiniself, would seem 
to be sufficiejit. So far as relates to one of the 
two departments, he takes to himself exclusively 
the responsibility, and denies rny -irij cvcty at- 
tempt to exercise an exccjjtionable or unlawful 
control on the part of the governmenl of cillier the 
bank or any of its branches. 

Yet in the face of this positive denial of Mr i 
Ingham, the directors of the btnk (in a report j 
adopted by a vote of twelve to three, December 
3, 1S33, many thousands of which repoitwere 
gratuitously cliculated, and paid for cut of (he 
friends of the bunk) reiterate the charge in the 
" llowing words: 



"It was in the midst of this career of inoffensive 
usefulness, when soon aftc:- tlie accession to pow- 
er of the prestiit Executive, the purpose was d'S- 
tinctly revealed tliat other duties than those to the 
country were required; and that it was necessary 
for the bank, in administering its affairs, to consult 
the political viev/s of those who had now ob- 
tained t!ie ascendancy in the Executive. It is un- 
dcT stood that sjon ajUr that event, a meeting tvas 
held in IVashington af the principal chiefs, to consi- 
der the means of perpetuatins; their new authority, 
and thevossesnon tf the hatik was among the niu^t 
prominent objects tf ihe partios as^tnibted. The 
fir^t open manifestation of the purpose was in 
June, 1829, when a conceited tffort was made by 
the executive officers to interfre in the election 
oftheboHi-d of directors at Portsmouth. At the 
head cf this attempt was Mr. Levi Woodbury, now 
a member of the present Cabinet at Washington, 
wlio <bd Udt hesitate to avow in a letter to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, which, though mark- 
ed 'confidential,' Vi^as subsequently ordered to 
be publiihed by the cwmniittee of investigation in 
1832,* that he wished the interference of the 
Government, to remove the President of the branch 
at Poitstnouth. * » * This letter of Mr. Wood- 
bury was trt nsmittcdto the bank by the Secreta- 
ry of the Treasury, who stated that 'from some 
expressions in his letter, it may be inferred that 
it is partly f)iinded on a supposed apfilication of 
the influenc." of the bank, with a view to pohtical 
eflTect;' in consequence of which, he deemed it 
his duty to present it to the bank, '■with, the vieios 
of the admini trafion in relation to it.' At the 
same titne, Mr. Isaac Hill, acting as the Comptrol- 
ler of the Treasury, until rejected by the Senate, 
and now a Senator of the United States, sent a 
meiBorial from the members of his political party 
in the Legislature of New Hampshire, requesting 
tlie removal of Mr. Mason. In another commu- 
nication presented to the bank, he gave it as lii^ 
opinion that no measure, short of Mr. Mason's re- 
moval, cot'.ld lend 'to reconcile Ihe people of New 
Hampshire to the bank, and tliat the friends of 
General Jackson, in NeAr Hampslsire, have h:-»d 
but too much rei'.son to complain of the manage- 
ment oflhe branch at Port-smouth.' Finally, the 
Secretary ;it War ordered the transfer of the pen- 
sion fund from tlie bratich bank at Portsmouth, 
to another bank in Concord, an ^ct so obviously in 
violation of the laws, that it was first resisted by 
the bank, and then retracted by the Secreiarj'. 

"It became then manifest to the bank, that there 
was a combined iffortto render the institntioii 
subservient to political purposes, and that it was 
necessary to come to some immediate and dis- 
ttnct understanding of its rights and duties." 

To sustain this reiteration of an already ex- 
ploded charge, the managers of the bank are 
obliged to resort to a fiction of their own inven- 
tion, tor which there is not even the slightest pre- 
tence of a foundation. They say "it is under- 
stood that soon after that event, a meeting was 
held in Wa.shinirton of the principal chiefs, &c., 
and the possession of the bank was among the 

'This is not true: the committee never directed the publica- 
tion. It was Mr. JJiddle himself, who. without a.sl;iiig liberty 
from the writers, shamelessly exposed this correspondence. 



most prominent objects of the parties assemb'ed." 
Now if" there be any tbundalion for this story, 
could not the gentlemen directors i'urnisli some 
better evidence than a mere "it is understood?" 
Ofliiese "princip;.! chiefs/' have we not :i rif^ht 
to suppose ihat < ither Mr. Ingliam ortlieiwo 
other disaffected members of tile Cabinet wlio re- 
tired with him, must iiavt- had seme knowledge' 
and has not each ol' them discovered at least an in- 
clination to expose before the public any and 
every transaction vvhicli mig-ht go to disgrace tiie 
administration? The alkged meeting is disproved 
by every circumstance which can go to establ sh a 
negative! The facts of il;e case itself, and amomr 
them the flict fully established by the correspond'- 
ence that the ground of complaint against Mr. Ma- 
son was not political, demon:,trate that both tlie al- 
leged meeting and its objects were the mere in- 
ventions of a mnid predetermined to seek a plausi- 
ble pretext for an accusation of some sort. 

It will not be denied that the object of some of 
the petitioners for a change in the board ofDa-ect- 
ors of the Portsmouth bianch, was an exemption 
irom that exclusive political managi^ment whicji ' 
haa been practised for ) ears at that branch. It 
was a matter of notoriety, that up to ihat time 
every member of tiie Board was opposed to the 



" bad management," and the " most exten- 
sive frauds." Mr. Bi^Idle liimsclf says, "Mr. 
Mason is only one member of that board, 
consisting of the same gentlemen wh.'} have had 
charge of the branch far ininnj years.''' 

But the management under Mr. Mason, became 
f (im "bad" to "worse." 7'he most profiiable and 
safi; busmess of the bank had been its country hxias 
made in sums of from ^500 to §2000 each, under 
an agreement that the interest and ten per cent, of 
the principal should be checked in every fViir 
months. As the bank had lost in its large loans, 
to speculators in factory and other stocks, Mr. 
Mason took it into his head that the smill debtors 
were less safe than the large one?; and violating' 
the pii^lited faitii of the bank, by a circular letter, 
called on all to renew their notes every two montlls, 
and at e;ich renewal, to pay tv^enty per cent, of 
the principal. This course, rigid y pursued, 
created a panic at once; and Mr. Mason stiH fur- 
tiier contributed to the distress, by taking a large 
sum from the circulation, and loaning it m Boston 
to his own paiticular friends and connexions. 

Witiiln the town of Portsmouih, the excite- 
ment against Mr. Mason became almost universal 
among the business men. It was charged on him, ihat 
... ,,--___ ...^ he arbitrarily changed (by shortenit.g) the periods 

admmistration; and for the la.st three years, the of payments of paper amounting to several him- 
bank had been managed (whether with or without drcd thousand dollars, reducing the time for re- 



the sanction of the Directois of the mother bank) 
with a view to political favoritism. 'I'lie bank had 
been befoi-e, as almost every branch bardi lia-j been 
since, a political m.achine, operating on t!ie elec- 
tions. At the time of the first election of Presi- 
dent Jackson, all the Directors were aciive parti- 
sans against him; and in time of scarcitj-, money 
ascommodaiions wtre understood to be granted as 
a matter of political favor 

This political management of ih:- Bank had 
proved to be bad management. Mr, Biddle, in a 
letter to Mr. Ingham, of July 18, 1829, 'says: 
" The office at Portsmouth had origmaliy the mis- 
fortune to have at its head a Mr. Cutts, who ended 
by defrauding the United States of upwards of 
S20,OLiO of the pension fund, whi^h the Bank was 
obliged to replace; and last year the oflice was 
nearly prostrated, in the general ruin which spread 
over the country. Tmt of ^460,000 of loans, 
i!>148,000 was thrown under protest: still furthrr 
protests were expected, and the actual loss sust.dn- 
cd there will not be less than $112,000. * * » _^ 
confidential olHcer was despatched to Portsmouth, 
who found the affairs of tlie office in great jeop- 
aidy, covered witii the wrecks which ba i n.:Vnagc- 
ii.ent and the most e.\tensive f.auds iiad occasion'^d. 
'I'o retrieve it, it became necessary to select a man 
of the hrst rate char;icler and abilities: such a man 
was Mr. Mason." i 



nev/als from one hundred and twenty to sixty 
diys, Hnd increasing eacii call from ten to twenty 
per cent.; that the best jiape'r in the State was re- 
fused ciiscoiint; that he ni:ide a run upon one of 
the local banks, with a view to stop it; and refu=ed 
dpafis at sight on a Boston bank, and denied the 
P ortsmoutii bank time even to send (a six hour's 
ride) to Boston, for its money there in deposite; 
that the papers.under which the revolutionary pen- 
sioners had usually drawn, were rejected upon ca- 
pricious and technical objections- Inconsequence 
of these reasons, and mainly for the reason that he 
threw into jail a ci'izen, (mie of his own political 
party,) by \irt.ue of;i process which,a.'5 a lawyr, h« 
issued against him, bt^caiise hs failed to comply 
with the requisition which, u^ Fi-esident,he ex-.icled 
in violation of the terms on wnich loans were 
made, the public indignation against Mr. Mason 
became so strong, tnat his imHge was hung, and 
burnt ill effig'y in front of h\i own dwelling. 

Mr. Mason had been p!ac>din the office of Pre- 
sident and attorney of the bank under a coinpen- 
saion raised from $800 'a §2000 per annum. Mr. 
Biddle, in his letter to Sir. Ingham, speaking of 
Mr. Mason says: — "Of his e-ntir.- competency, <^spe- 
cially in detecting the complicated frauds, and 
managing the numerous law suits which s'^jmed 
inevittible, tlicrc couhl be no doubt." " Since 



, lie has been in (office, he hss been exceedingly use- 
To correct Uie "bad min:.g:ment," :.nd "ex- 1 ful— has saved the bank from great losses— has 
tensive frauds," there was at no time a change secuivd the bad debts; nor until Mr. AVoodbury's 
ot direction: the s^^me individuaLs from tha?, i letter, was I informed of any coHiplaint agamst 
the ( hapter, continued to con- i him." 



to tlie end of 

trol the bank— tiie same polit:c<l coterie at ;dl 
times wiekled it as their weapon of influence. .Mr. 
Mason w:is appointed President— he had been a 
^lirector and attorney for the bank before tliat 
ttne; and he remained associated in the Board 
wiji the same men that controlled it at the ti.me of 



If the bank had Intended to make severe exac- 
tions of the people, Mr. M:^.son was the man of all 
otners to lio their business; but he was not the 
mail to manage an odlce of discount and deposites 
either for the benefit of the bank or to the satis, 
'faction of men of busness; and the result prove- 



8 



the truth of my proposition. A (abular slate- 
men', furnished by tlie bank, presents the follow- 
ing as the profits on llie business of the Ports- 
mouth branch bank: 

In 1828, - - - ^25,903 80 

1829, - - - 9,697 04 

1830, - - - 5,164 16 
The truth is, Mr. Mason's severe freatmenl and 

violition of the plig-hted faith of the bank, at once 
drove from it its most profitable customers, so 
that in two years the profits of that branch were 
redu -td to less than one-fifth the ordinary amount. 
These were the causes which induced fifty-eit^ht 



President." "In making these general repre- 
sentations, I am repeating whut are in the mouths 
of almost every citiz-m, of wliatr.ver pohtical de- 
nomination, and am inviting, at the request of 
many, your influence at tlie mother Hank, in pro- 
ducing a change." "Never, on any occasion, 
have I known complaints so wide and bitter as in 
the case now under consideration." 

We have just seen how completely Mr. Ingham, 
then Secretary of the Treasury, exonerates all 
others than himself from any intention of assum- 
ing political control over the bank, and how he 
likewise demonstrates, that in making the repre- 



respectable individmls and firms, comprising j sentation he did, he disclaimed "all desire to 
most of the active businei-s-men in Portsmouth, to I derive political aid through the bank." Mr 



petition the President and Directors of the mother 



liiddle himself shall speak of what were the mo- 



bank for a change of the President of the branch ' tives of Mr. Woodbury. In his letter of July IS, 
at the end of his term. (;f these fifiy-eight houses, ! 1829,toMr Ingliam.he says: "It appeisrs.tlun, froni 
thirty-eight at least were men of the same politi-j Mr. Woodbury's own statement, that, so far from 
cal party as Jlr. Mason. Ihe most of them re- employing the influence of the bank," with a 



main of thut paty^ and as a proof that the main 
reason for petitioning for a substitution was not 
political, I may sti.te the fact, th;it twenty-four of 
tnese names appear on the oidy petition for a res- 
toration of the deposit.es to th - Bank "f the Uni- 
ted States, which was presented from New Hamp- 
shire during the season of panic and distress of 
the f^ession of Congress two vears ago. 

Scarcely any worse condition of the bank could 
be conceived than that represented by Mr. B;ddle 
hitBself. He says:— " A confidential ofiicer had 
been despatched to Poitsmouth, who found the 
affairs of the ofiice in great jeopardy, covered 
with the wrecks which bad maiiagemeni and the 
most extensive frauds had occasioned." Further 
on, he admits that no change had been made for 
thebttter, for he says: " Mr. Mason is only one 
n~.ember of that Board, consisting of the same gen- 
tlemen who have had charge of the brancli for 
many years." 

It was against such a state of things as this, that 
respectful representations were made by citizens 
ol all parties in Portsmouth, (and a major part of 
those citizens, men who had never supported the 
administration of Andrew Jackson, avid men who 
did not support him so late as the winter of 1834, 
in the act of the removal of the deposites,) in favor 
of a change of the President, and'direction of the 



view to political effect, " it is a notorious fact 
that the complaints are made by Mr. Mason's otcn 
political friends; so that, in truth, if there be any 
politics in ihe matter, it is a question between Mr. 
Mason and politicians of his own pursuaiion." 

Is it not surprising, that in tiie lupse of little 
mnre than a year afterward-i, Mr. Biddle should 
represent Mr. Woodbury, as at tlie "head of the 
attempt" to create a political subserviency of the 
bank to the administration? And this charge is 
made by him in the pamphlet report of a com- 
mittee of directors of the Bank of the United 
States, adopted by the Board, December 3, 1833. 
May we not account for this discrepancy in the 
change of circumstances of the c^se.'' In July, 
1829, tliere was not even an expectation ef charg- 
ing the efforts made for the removal of the Pre- 
sident of the Portsmoiith branch ,to a design of 
the administration to convert the bank into a poli- 
tical instrum-nt in its own hands; while in De- 
cember, 1833, it became highly important that the 
directors of the bank should fix on certain un- 
named "political chiefs" as having "distinctly 
revealed" that other "duties than those to the 
country were required" of the bank. 

In the same pamphlet, for the purpose of 
strengthening the charge of a "desire to derive 
political aid through the operations of the bank," 



branch at Portsmouth. And it was at the especial I the humble part I fiCted in forwarding the wishes 



instance of those c.tizens, of all parties, that 
about sixty members of the I-egislature of New 
Hampshire subscribed their names to another peti- 
tion, recommending a change of the direction, and 
naming ten persons, a majority of whom was not, 
at that time, friends of the admini.st ration, as 
suiti-ble for directors to that braneh. Neither did 
Mr. Woodbury or Mr. Hill move in this business 
of their own accord, b-.it at the especial request of 
the same citizens of Portsmouth, a mnjor part of 
whom were then, and since have continued to be, 
of the opposition to this administration. 

Mr. Woodbury, in a confidential letter to Mr, 
Ingham, requests him to lend "any aid for the 
relief of the complainers that he can with pro- 
priety furnish." He says "our commercial men 
are almost unanimous in their complaints, and the 
people in the interior, who were wont to be ac- 
commodated formerly at the branch, jwin with 
them in a desire for the removal of the present 



of the citizens of Portsmouth, without distinction 
of party, is misrepresented, by quoting from !ny 
letter detached sentences going to show that my 
application had a bearing exclusively political. 
Then holding a subordinate siaiion in one of the 
accounting departments of the Treasury, I was 
absent a few weeks in ^ew Hampshire. While 
at my place of residence, which is the seat of 
governmont, a messenger, who had arrived the 
day before from Portsmouth, presented the peti- 
tion, subscribed by fifty-eight individual firms of 
Portsmouth, addressed to the Directors of the 
Bank of the United States, remonst,rating ag.Hinst 
the reappointrnent of Mr. Mason as a director of 
the briinch at [Portsmouth, and representing that 
"the administration of its concerns during the 
past year Ivas created great dissatisfaction ii.i thi> 
quarter of the country, and has been of a charfC- 
ter, in our opinion, partial, harsh, and no less in- 
jurious to the bank itself than to those vvIk are 



9 



accustomed to do business with it;" and also a nne 
moriril,8 giied by between fifty and sixty members 
of the siHte Legislature, reprepeiitini^ that they 
" lia\c f^ond reason to believe t!iat the l-t!e man- 
ag'emeiit of the Hoard of Directors cf tlie Branch 
li.-ink at Portsmouth has been oppressive to the 
men of buyiness in the State, and tends to the in- 
jury of the institution itself;" "that the conchict 
of the head of the Hoard has been destructive to 
the basin< ss of Portsmoutii, and ofFi-nsive to the 
whole Lommunity;" and respectfully naming- ten 
iiulividuUs wlio are recomnu-nded as randuiates 
for dirt ctors. This pethion and memorial he re- 
quested me to take on my return to W:ishin.;ton, 
and cm e them to be laid before the President of 
the motht-T hank. Passing' rapidly through Phila- 
delphia, I had no time to see or consult vvitli the 
president and directors, with whom I had no per- 
sonal acquaintance. I did, however, consult with 
two gentlemen whom I knew, who engaged to 
lay them itter before the president of the bank, 
whenever 1 should forward the papers from Wash- 
ington. It is my letter to those two gentlemen 
that Mr Blddle not only took and used as a pub- 
lic letter, but the contents of which he has dis- 
orttd, for the purpose of forcing an inference 
^hat I was interfering in accordance with the de- 
sign of cei tain "political chiefs " at AVashington, 
*o corrupt the vestal purity of the bank, and en- 
tice or di ive it " into a base political connexion 
with the ailmini-tration." 

The f 'llovving exti acts, embracing the whole 
scope of the private letter which I address d to 
Messrs. Fiarker and Pemberton of Philadelphia, 
imder date of July 17, 1829, decisively prove that 
my objict, so far as I had an object, was entirely 
misrepresented in the pamphlet of the Bank Di- 
rectors : 

"Having recently spent several weeks in New 
Hampshire, I am able to say, from my own know- 
jedgp.that the sentiment of dissatisfaction on account 
of the rt ct nt management of the branch at Ports- 
mouth, by Mr. iVIason, is general; that his conduct 
has bt en partal and oppressive, ^nd calculated not 
less to injure the institution than to disgust and dis- 
affect the principal business men, and that no 
measuri- short of his removal will tend to reconcile 
the people of New Hampshire to the Bank. * * * 
'•I he friends of General Jackson in New Hamp- 
shire have had but too much reason to comp'ain of 
the management of the branch at Portsmouth. 
All they now ask is, that this institution in th t 
State m y not continue to be an eng ne of politic d 
oppression by any party. The board has, I be- 
lieve, inva iably and exclusively consisted of indi- 
viduals ■ pposed to the Gener.d Government. Of 
the ten (lersons named in the petition for directors, 
six are friends of the last, and four are friends of 
the prt s. n administration; they are, however, 
alike, genjemen nf respectability, who have no 
sinist; r obj cts to be promoted, understanding well 
the rest) nsihilities and wants of business men. 
With >uch a direction, I do not doubt the branch 
at Poitsmouth will be secure and prosperous, and 
satisfy :dl." 

Under tlu'se reprr sentations the President of 
the bank visited Portsmouth, and is understood to 
have exhihi'ccl every written representation made 
to him, confidentially or otherwise, to the eyes or 



the esrs of the assembled citizens of the town; and 
the well known ta'ent of his principal oflRcer, for 
small verbal criticism and for ridicule, was put in 
requisition for an exhibition of the letters and peti- 
tions before the people. It was soon discovered 
10 be no purtof Mr. Biddle's object to listen to the 
complaints of the people, whether with or without 
foutidation He came there for no such puipose. 
It was no part of his object to satisfy that commu- 
nity by any relaxation of severity, but rather to 
conquer the revolting spirit by letting all know 
who wanted any indidgence from the bank, how 
much ai-id how deeply they wet e under obligations 
to his favor. The exclusive pohtical rule of that 
bank, from that day to the day it was closed, was 
continued. A directorship has in two or three in- 
stances been offered to friends of the existing ad- 
ministration, and, being obliged to act .as mere au- 
tomatons, each of them, it is believed, has de- 
clined to act. 

That this bank, existing there for about eigh- 
teen yea-^s, without taxation from the State, 
and having all the benefits of the public deposites 
during a greater part of the time, has been of 
real injury to the Slate, must be admitted. At 
first furnishing, by extraordinary capital that 
could not be usefully employed, strong tempta- 
tions for speculation, this bank terminated the ca- 
reer, by prostrating in pecuniary ruin, many men 
who might have done a safe business through life 
if temjjtations had not been thrown in their way 
to make investments by loans from the bank. 

The charge in the''directors' pamphlet, of an ef- 
fort at Washington "to rendi r the institution sub- 
servient to political purposes," by the order of the 
War Department to transfer the pension fund 
from the branch bank ;»t Portsmouth to another 
bank at Concord, but illy accords with the other 
charge which I have at length been considering. 
If, in the one case, the aUempt had been to cre- 
ate a subserviency on the part of the bank by 
changing the political character of the directors, 
where would be the consistency in depnving the 
bank at the .same time of what seems now to have 
been a privilege, but which, until that time, had 
always been represented to be a burden? The 
truth is, that a majority of the Legislature of 
New HHmpshire, having been always taught by 
those concerned in the United States Bank, that 
the bank coveted not the privilege of paying the 
pensioners, petitioned the Secretary of War to re- 
move the fimd to a more central point, which 
would make the average distance of travel for 
each and every pensioner from twenty-five to thir- 
ty miles less. In several other States, up to that 
time, pensions had been paid by agencies other 
than those of the Bank of the United States and 
its branches. The Secretary of War, doubting 
not his right, because it had not before been dis- 
puted, fiirected thj pension agency to be changed. 
This direction and cha<ge threw new light on the 
subject. The Bank of the United States, to mag- 
nify its services to the public and make them 
more than an equivalent for its exclusive privile- 
ges, had represented the holding and disbursing of 
the public moneys as extremely onerous. But Mr. 
M.ison presents an entirely different view of the 
subject, which he offers as a reason v/hy the bank 
should resist the transfer of agencies. He s.ays: 



10 



"The removal coritemplalcd would lessen our 
means of circulation, and, as 1 think, be very in- 
urious lo the bank." It is uifHcuIt to perceive 
how the other of "tiie two Executive Depart- 
ments," tile Secretary of War, should have been 
acting in concert v/ith the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury, when he directed the pt nsion agency to be 
removtd from a bark which the latter was attempt- 
ing to control, to another bank over which, by 
possibility, he had no ritjht of control. It appears 
to me that the "two Executive Departments," if 
designing to do what they are charged with doing, 
were acting directly at cross purposes. 

Connected with this subject of alleged inter- 
ference of the Executive to render the institution 
subservient to ])olitical purposes, is the charge 
made against the I*' esident of having from the out- 
set entertained a violent hostility to the bank and 
its management. 'I'his charge is countenanced by 
the whitewashing report of tlie Finance Com- 
mittee of 1834; it is m-jre partlcidarly set forth in 
the pamphlet o* the directors, after having alleged 
that they valiantly resisted ail the wicked at- 
tempts of the Ex. cutive to sully the pure honor 
of the bank by forcing them to become pohti- 
cians, when tliey say — 

"These extracts reveal the whole secret of 
the hobtility to the bank of those who, finding it 
impossible to bend it to their purposes, have re- 



entire confidence" of its inamorato? The charge 
of seduction or force attempted upon tSie bank i« 
false — it is an after thought, an accusation which 
will return " but to plague- tlie inventors." 

The whitewashing report of the Committee of 
Finance of 1834, bears evirlent marks of being 
the production of more than one hand. The 
largest half of this report, if I might be permit- 
ed to give an opinion, I would say canje from the 
same quarter as h.ive most of the wliite-vvashing 
reports that had preceded it; that it scents of the 
shop, so that its author may be detected as one 
of the banking fiaternity, whose business is to 
regulate the rise and fail of stocks and the course 
of exchange. Observe the expression on page 
42, line 12 from tiie bottom, of "drafis ju llm 
iijfice.''' Tnis expression, isolated as it is, and re- 
lei'ring with certainty to no particular place, one 
would think could never have been midc by oric 
of the committee. Referring, as it evidently 
does, to tl>e offline at Philadelphia, ill-nature 
might say it could have been written only by a 
tenant of the marble house. Critics would of- 
fer this as one of the external evidences, that the 
larger portion of the jipology for the hank came 
from the bank itself. I must do the gentlemen on 
the committee the justice lo a;iy, that I believe 
either of them would, after an application of two 
months-, during the recess of Congress, have 



solved to breaS it. For this purpose, all the i produced a more credit.tble production than the 
poisoned weapons of political warfare have, for | larger part of this report— a report so meagre in 
the la.stfourytars, i)een unsparingly and unceas- 1 accurate facts, and yet so fruit fid in matters for 
mgly employed against the institution." conjecture; a report which reluctantly admit.s 

This charge upon the veteran salesman and [what it cannot conceal, and poorly attempts to 
patriot comes with an ill grace from the man who I cover up what it had better have exposed to the 
had for four successive yer,r.s been non-iina:ed hy j world. 

the President oftli'-. United States to the oflice of j I give my behef that the report is not all pro- 
director of the bank. Mr. Adams himself, in his duced bv the same hand; I would not positively 
minority report, makes the boa.t "that Mr. Bid- , say it is part from the bank and part from the 
die had enjoyed the unquestioned and emire con- 1 committee. When the report says, on page 1, 
fidence both of the Government and the individ- 1 " every facihty was aflbrded by the officers of the 
ual stockholders." " Ten long years," continues j institution which the committee could have de- 
Mr. A., "has this confidence been enjoyed and j sired;" that "no hesitation or reluctance was 



justified by that distinguished citizen and honora- 
ble man. No question had ever been invidiously 
started how many proxies he held.? The more he 
held, the more extensive was the confidence of 
the stockholders in him. No scruple had ever 
crossed the mind of any President of the United 
States to deter him from nominating- him year af- 
ter year a;; a Government directorT" 

Where has this man found occasion, in his own 



manifested in furnishini;; every book or paper 
which was required; and every avenue to a lull 
and free investigation, not only at the bank, but at 
the several branches visited by the commitiee or 
any member of it, was promptly laid open;" when 
the report speaks thus, we would scarcely believe 
the language lo "be that of the committee. But 
when the report, on page 46, siys, " the directors 
should carefully have avoided every appearance 



person, to saj that the President interfered of mystery, nor should they iiave consented to 



against him or his management until aft. r th 
election of 1832.? When did President Jackson 
"distinctly reveal" to president Biddle, that he 
required "other duties" of him "than those due 
to the country.?" When did the patriot states- 
man give Mr. Bid tie to understand that it whs ne- 
cessat-y for the Bank to « consult the political 
views of ihose who had obtained the ascendancy 
in the E.\ecutive.?" Cjuld it be possible that this 
immaculate institution, with its immaculate guard- 
ian genius and head, should have preserved their 
vestal purity for four years.? should have succes- 
sively resisted every assault upon tlieir virtue, and 
repelled the lawl. ss assailant; and at lliesame time 



p'ane the president in a situntion so full of em- 
barrassments;" that "the committee owe it to them- 
selves to state, that they submitted to the presi- 
dent the propriety of disclosing the objects 
of expenditure;" that "the president averred that 
the banic could not have the least difiiciiliy 
in making an ample and minute detailed disclo- 
sure of every item of expenditure, so far as the 
bank itself or its officers were concerned, but 
urged the delicacy and justice, in his opinion, of 
refraining from disclosures which would most pro- 
bably expose others, every way innocent, to vitu- 
peration, malignant a">persion, and, peradventure, 
jiersonal venge.ance," that "he averred his wil- 



enjoyed for the whole term the "unqueslionedand; hngness to verify, under any form of solemnity. 



11 



in any way agreeable to the committee, for wliat 
^he expenditure Jiad not been made — lliat no por- 
tion of it had been made to subsidize any portion 
of the public press, or tamper witli or affect the 
purity of any public functionary, but reverted to 
the indelicacy and possible dan.e^er of exposing' 
innocent persons to odium or persecution;" when 
the report speaks after tliis sort, I should be more 
than half inclined to the belief that some one of 
the committee had a hand in producing' a part of it. 

Wii.it H singular anomaly does the whitcwushing- 
report of the Finance Committee present! The 
first statement is, that there was no concealmi?nt — 
that every thing was tUrown open to the view of 
the committee, and by the committee to the 
world. Tiie last statement is nearly a ful! page of 
apology for concealment of every thing- that the 
president of the bank supposed would make 
against him. Such a ))alpable contradiction, in a 
rs-port of this kind, stamps its character as scarce- 
ly more reputable than tiiat of the subject on 
which it treats. We may believe such a report, so 
far as it admits truth that makes ag<*inst the bank: 
we can place no confidence in such assertions, 
without proof, as make any thing- in its favor. 

I have been forcibly struck, ^!r. President, 
with the keenness of sensibility evinced by the 
bank and its friends at every imputation < f its in- 
tention to interfere with the politics of the coun- 
try. From t!:e first of January to the List of 
December of every year since 1829, the bur- 
den of the song lias been, that the bank keeps it- 
self entirely al'iof from politics. Under the date 
of June 19, 1829, we find Mr. Biddle writing to 
the Secretary of the Treasury: 
>, "The ofiicers of the bank and all Its brandies 
are thorouglily imbr.ed with this spirit, knowinjr, 
as they do, that tlieir interfrrence in political 
contentions would be highly offensive to the gene- 
ral admiiiistration of the institution." 

"S believe tliere are r,ot in the whole country any 
other five hundred persons, of equal intelligence, 
so abstracted irom public ^fFairs, as the five hun- 
dred who are employed in administering the bank; 
and I am satisfied that no loan was ever granted 
to, or withheld from any individual, on account of 
partiality or hostility." 

"In the choice of its agents «nd the distribution 
of its loans, it should be wholly indifferent to poli- 
tical parties." 

"In general, the clifs of persons active'y enga- 
ged in polititical contentions, as well from tlieir 
own war.ts, as from the train of adherent*, whose 
claims they are too prone to support, :ire among 
the most dangerous inmates of a bank." ' 

Again, G:;neral Cadwalader, acting president of 
the hnidc iti the absence of Mr. Bidrlle, writes, 
under date of August 4, 1829, to the Secretary of 
the 'i'reasury: 

"If, however, it can he .shown that, in any quar- 
ter, the officers of the bank have lent tliemselves 
OS the ministeis of a parly, or have used 'he power 
of the corporation for political purpo.'scs, not a mo- 
ment will be lost in visiting such offences with the 
utmost seveii'y of censure and punishment." 

How graphically, in the one cas^-, does Mr. 
Tiiddle present,in contrast the five hundred oflicers 
of the bank operating throughout the Union in 



the Presidential and Congressional elections 
of 1832 and 1834, and the army of hired and 
purchased and dependent " tiain of adhe- 
rents," who fought like bullies to overpower the 
people at those elections; and how truly in the 
other case does General Cadwalader and his Board 
of Directors exliibit fie picture of deformity which 
must attach to officers of the bank, who stand 
condemned out of their own mouths. 

The correspondence of Mr. Bid:lle is full of 
similar expressions of detestiition, at all attempts to 
make the bank instrumi/nta! of promoting political 
or parly purposes. So much for 1829: ve find 
the case a little altered in 1830. In that year the 
Board gave tlieir president authority to circulate 
an article on banks and currency, (.for writing 
and not printina^ whicli, Mr. Biddle paid Mr. 
Albert Gallatin, it is said, ^,000,) published in the 
American Quarterly Review, containing a favora- 
ble notice of the bank. 

In 1831, Mr. Biddle suggested to the Board of 
Directors the "expediency and propriety of ex- 
tending still more widely a knowledge of the 
concerns of the institution;' and a resolution 
passed the Board, authorizing the president to 
cause to be prepared and circulated, such docu- 
ments and papers as may communicate to the peo- 
ple information in regard to the operations of the 
bank." 

I'lie directors of the bank say, in their pam- 
phlet of 1833, that the expenses incurred, as 
stated in the expense account, in executing these 
resolutions, from December, 1829, when t/ie first 
assault wai made upon the bank bjj the P esiden\ 
to the present time, &c-, amount to $58,265.05, 
&c. 

"So that the general result is,that within fi)uryears 
past, the bank has been obliged to incur an ex- 
pense of §58,000 t') defend itself against injurious 
misrepresentation ." 

I wish the following sentence from the bank 
pamphlet, published in December 1833, should be 
particularly noted: 

"The bank lias never interfered iti the slightest de- 
cree in politics, and never hifitienced, or sought to 
infiuencc, elections,- but it will not be deterred by 
the menaces or clam;jr5 of politicians, from execu- 
ting its duty in defending itself." 

This was said and solemnly declared to the 
world in the latter part of 1833. February 4, 1834, 
the Committee of Finance of the Senate of the 
United States gave their countenance to V.- above 
declaration, as will be seen in the following ex- 
tracts: 

"The last charge preferred against the bank, 
by Mr. Taney, is, that it has used iis means with a 
view to obtain pohtical power, and tliereby se- 
em e a renewal of its charter. 

"The very statement of such a charge, as a rea- 
son for tlie removal of the deposltes, is calculated 
to excite disfrust in the wisdom and propri-ty of 
that measure; because the charge, too gner!«lto 
be proved, is also too 'general to be disproved." 
* * * "Nor is it either acknowledged, nor po 
far as the committee know, proved, that the bank 
took an open and direct interest, as a corporation, 
in the election refercd to," (the Presidential elec- 
tion of 1832.) 



12 



Even the report of t'^e Commif tee of Finance, ' 
made at the last srssion of Congress, conderaa^ 
the interference of the bank in the elections. It 
says: "For a great moneyed corporation, created 
to subserve the purposes of the country, to lend 
itself to pirty, and to enter throti_£rh its moneyed 
power, in any way, into the political stnigdes of 
the da)', would be to render it truly and deserv- 
edly odious," 

The committee published several letters of an- 
terior dales, in which Mr. Biddle denies all inter- 
ference of the bank in politics; from them I select 
the following sentences: 

Letter to J. Harper, Esq., Lexmshn, Kentuchj, 
dated January 9, 1 S29 

"I have myself an extreme unwillingness to 
blend politics with the concerns of the bank 
Nearly all its misfortunes may be traced to this 
cause, and in your section of the country we have 
surely had a melancholy experience of the hazard 
of lending to politicians-" What politicians are 
meant here? 

Lnter to E. Sheppm, Esq , Lnnisville, Kentucky, 
February 12, 1829. 
"That the offices in Kentucky had suffered 
deeply from the influence of politicians; that we 
had for some time been endeavoring to withdraw the 
bank out of the reach of that influence; that we 
had at length succeeded in giving a business cha- 
racter to its transactions," &c. 

Letter to J. Johwov, Esq., Charleston, {S. C.) Sep- 
tember 30, 1830. 

"In the administration of the Bank of the United 
States, no principle is more fundamental, than its 
total abstinence from politics, &c. 

These and ntlier letters, and extracts of letters 
fromMr. Biddle, were published by the white- 
washing committee, for no other seeming purpose 
than to produce an impression on the public mind, 
that the m magers of the bank had such an innate 
abhorrence of politics and politicians, that it might 
be safely sworn the bank retained, down to the 
year the report was made, its vestal virgin purity; 
and had never interfered at all in politics. 

But could that committee believe the Americ'in 
people so destitute of common sense, as not to dis- 
cover, tven from the scantv evidence which their 
report exhibited, that the allegation is false; that 
the bank has abstnined from direct and posi- 
tive interference in the elections; and that the 
Board of Directors, and all those who have given 
currency to their statement of December, 1833, 
that "the bank has never interfered in the sliirbt- 
cst degree in politics, and never influenced, or 
sought to influence elections," stand convicted of 
untruth in its deepest and broadest sense? 

This unpardi)nab!e departure from the truth, 
constituting a criminality even more flatjrant than 
the acts ofintcrference themselves, may be proved 
m some fifty or a hundred cases. I shall content 
myself in this place, to rite one only. 

As a prelude to an exhibition of the sums paid 
for publications by the bank, to partizan editors and 
others, the committee exhibit a letter from Nicho- 
las Biddle, under date of September 26, 1832, to 
the president of the Lexington, Kentucky, Branch 
Bank, sending therewith a copy of Mr. Webster's 



speech on the President's veto message, and also 
an article reviewing that message. These he 
state?;, it is desirable should be circiila'ed.to coun- 
teract the injurious impressions which the mes- 
sage was calculated to make against the institu- 
tion. He also directs the publication of Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Ewing's speeches on the same subject, 
andsavs: '"AH I wish to caution jou against, is, 
that abstaining, an the bank dues, from all comitxion 
ivUh what are called politics, you will confine your 
efforts exclusively to the distribution of what may 
be explanatory of the optrations and conduct of 
the bank.'' 

Here was a very pretty, and a very positive 
declaration, with wliich the whitewashing commit- 
tee might commence their exhibition of "the ac- 
count of tlie Bank of the United States for print- 
ing, &c., other than ordinary." To stamp an in- 
delible falsehood on the declaration that the bank, 
in the elections of 1832, abstained from all politi- 
cal interference, I wiil quote from the statement 
of the committee one simple i'em, as follows: 

"Nathan Hale, printing 40,00U copies of Web- 
ster's speech at Worcester Convention; 12,500 
copies Webster's speech on the bank veto, and 
stitching, boxes, freight by packet and stages, 
packing and sending awa}-, iJ2,422 65." 

Now, I happen to recollect something about this 
Worcester speech: there was scarcely an indivi- 
dual voter of the State of New Hampshire, who 
was not, just previous to the November election 
of 1832, futnlshed with a copy of this Worcester 
speech. Such as would not take them from the hands 
of the runners appointed to distribute them, had 
them thrown into their door yards, at night. They 
came into New Hampshire (about the eame time 
their author made us a visit,) just before the 
day of election, when, too late for contradiction, 
certain Bos'on gentl men kindly certified to us 
false news relative to the Pennsylvania elections. 

This Worcester speech was not confined to a 
vindication of the bank — it was spoken, printed, 
and circulated for quite another object; and this 
object will be best explained by reading a few ex- 
tracts from it. I read them, Mr. President, to 
show that Nicholas Biddle practised a most audaci- 
ous and glaring deception on the Committee of Fi- 
nance.if by artfully introducing his disclamer along 
side of hi« account, he inducc-d them to believe 
that he had paid for the circulation only of such 
articles as were " explanatory of the operations 
and conduct of the bank." 

Extract, from Mr. Websteu's speech at the Nalion- 
al Rtpublican Convention, in Worcester (Mass.) 
October \2lh, 1832. 

" Mr. Pre.sident: I take the hnzanl of the reputation of an 
alarmi.st. I clieerfnlly submit to the imputation of over-excitecl 
apprehension. I discani all learoftlie cry of false prophecy, 
and I declare thai, in my judgment, not only the great interests 
of ihecomitry, but the constitution itself, is in imminent peril, 
and that nothini; can save either the one or the other, but that 
voice which has authority to say to the evils of misrule and 
mis-government, hitherto shall ye come, but no farther. 

" Sir, Vie see one State of the Union openly threatcnins to 
arrest the execution of the i-evenue laws of the Union, by acts 
of her own. This proceeding is threatened, not by irresponsi- 
ble persons, but by those who fill her chief places of power 
and trust. 

"In another Stale, free citizens of the country are imprison- 
ed, and held in prison in defiance of a judgment of the Su- 



Webster's I prcme Court, pronounced for their deliverance. Immured in 



a dungeon, marked, and despatched as subjects of a peniten- 
tiary puni.shment, these ciiizens pass tlieir days in couiuius 
ihc slow revolving hours of their miserable captivity, and tlieir 
nights in feverish and delusive dreams of tbeir homes, and 
their own families; while (he constiiuiicmstands aiijuilged m 
be violated, a law of Congress is eli'uctually repealed by the 
act of a Slate, and a judgment of deliverance by the Supreme 
Ci>urt is set at nought, and contemned. 

"Treaties, importing the nios. solemn and sacred obligations, 
are deaied to have binding force. 

'■ A feeling that there is great insecurity for property, and 
the stability of the means oflivin;: extensively prevails. 

''Tlie whole subject of the laritl", acted on for the moment, is, 
at the same moment, declared not to be at rest, but liable to be 
again moved, and with greater effect, just so soon as power 
lor that purpose shall be obtained. 

••The currency of the country, hitherto safe, sound, and 
universally satisfactory, is threatened with a violent chanse, 
and embarrassment iii pecuniary affairs, equally distressing 
and unnecessary, hangs over all the trading and active classes 
of society. 

'• V long used, and long approved legi-slative instrument for 
the collection of revenue, well secured against abuse, and al- 
ways reipoitsihSe to Congress a7ul the lairs, is denied further 
existence; and its place is propo.=ed to be supplied by a new 
branch of E.N;ecutive D.^partment, with a money power, control- 
led and conducted solely by Executive agency. 

"gir, the question is wholly unsettled, and the principles of 
ilie administration, according to its most recent avowal of 
those principles, is adverse to tlie | rotecling policy, decidedly 
hostile 10 tlie whole system, root and branch; and this on per- 
itianent and alleged constitutional grounds. 

" The question, therefore, of the tariff— the question of every 
tariff— the question between maintaining our agricultural anil 
manufiiciuring interests where they now are, and breaking up 
the entire system, and erasing every vestige o( it from the 
.statute book, is a question materially to be affecta,d by the 
pendin; election." 

Fro.n this extract it will be seen th:it the Wor- 
cester speed) liad but little to do with explana- 
tions " of the operation '^nd conduct of the bank," 
but that it iHunched at once into all the exciting" top- 
ics which were calculated to influence the then 
pending' election. We may very much admire 
the ho'dness of the speaker who could *' cheer 
fully submit to the imputation of over excited ap- 
prehension," — who conld " discard all fear of the 
cry of false prophecy" — who could declare the 
country and the constitution, e"ery thin^ we hold 
dear, to be in "imminent peril;" and who, on that 
great occasion, threw himself into the breach; but 
we must detest that hypocr'sy, whether it be 
of the b«nk or its friends, which continues to de- 
clare and reiter.ite that tiie publication and gratui- 
tous circulation of forty thousand such speeches, 
just on the eve of the presidential election, was no 
interference with politics. 

Why, Mr. President, this speech was like An- 
tony's funeral oration over the dead body of 
Cxsar; it opened the " poor dumb wounds" of the 
bleediiij? country, and roused the men of Massa- 
chusetts, who had long been taught to consider 
Aii'lrew .Jackson as the veriest tyrant, the most 
liard-hearted oppressor that ever existed in this 
or any other country, to such an effort .is tliat 
.State had not made since the time when its Le- 
gislature resolved it to be " unbecoming a moral 
and religious people to rejoice" at the successes 
of our gallant army and navy,in the war of 1812; it 
was such an exciting appeal .is would almost 
move the rocks to mutiny. This Worcester 
speech in 1832, was hut the comm-ncement of the 
t;looiny predictions followed up in 1834. The 
ujmni.stration decidedly "hostile to the protect- 
ing policy," and " embarrassment in pecuniary 
uffairs, equally distressing and unnecessary, hangs 



over all the trading and active classes of socie- 
ty." How often did we hear during the panic 
ses.sion of Congres.s, that the' estimates of the 
Treasury were overrated; that there would be a 
great falling off in the revenue; that confidence 
was destroyed; iucUistry paralyzed; commerce sus- 
pended; that the wiilidr.iwal of the deposltes had 
changed the face of the country from a sc; ne of 
unparalleled prosperity to a scene of unparalleled 
desolation; that the commercial towns were de- 
serted; orders for goods were cf)iinterm*nded; 
foreign purchases stopped, etc ? Now mark how 
a pain tale shall disprove all these pred ctions. 
The imports and exports of the last five years 
show tiiat the business of the country has 
at no lime been so prosperous and so exten- 
sive as in the two years since the withdrawal of the 
deposites. 

[Value of im- I g . . | j, ■ I Total exports 

Yr's! P°^i^i'^*:^J domestical-- foreign ar- I »' l^'reign 
tides. tides. 



U.S. of for- I 
eign articles j 



and domes- 
tic articles 



ISU I $97,0:3-2,858 I SO-i.OlS,^^ 

'?,■> \ \mfiry2fi77 03,074,81.5 

'33 109.0011,000 I 70,W-.-,030 

'34 I 1-2?,093,3S1 | 74,444fi29 

'35 I HS',87g ,')-';8 I 101.1Sf)082 



[ ■S1S,3-J4.333 
2:3,963. 1-^s 
20,0:21.373 
2-2,874;-295 



$80,37'2,566 
87.1«7,943 
90,663,403 
97,318,724 



20,504,49-5 | r21,t593,577 



Our imports and exports have fully kept pace 
with the increase of our population; the former 
exceeding the latter in about the ratio of profits on 
foreign traffic, including the products of the sea, 
earned and st-cured by our enterprising fi-,her- 
men and sailors. Since the commencement of 
the present administration, the annud imports 
liave increased from about seven!y-four millions 
to one hundred and fifty millions of dollar!-; the 
country is prospered as no other nalio.. v. r was 
prospered, in spite of the efforts to ihiov/ em- 
barrassments in the way. Surely something must 
be due to the admi listration, since it was to the 
administration that all the anticipated misery and 
desolation were charged! 

There was some little sophism inch:irging > 'he 
Pres'dent and his friends the acts of those who 
filled the "chief places of power" in a southern 
State, that has acted for the last few years almoit 
entirely in concert with those who sustain *• the 
chif places of power" in .Massachusetts; but we 
must pardon something to tliis liberty taken by the 
orntor,when we consider th.it he che. rfuily submit- 
ted " to the imputation of over excited apprehen- 
sion,"and ingeniously contrived to unite the cas 
of the imprisoned inissionaries in another State with 
the nullification of South Carolina. The story 
told of the •• slow revolving hours of their mis- 
erable captiv'ity," of their " feverish and delusive 
dreams of their homes," was in admirable keep- 
ing with the efforts that had been m.ule for the 
purpose of producing collision between the 
fiovermients (;f the State of Georgia and of the 
United Stites, by citizens of Ma.ssachusetts, who 
ha 1 prosecuted the suit and obtained an ex parte 
trial and decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

One siTi:iil circumstance the Worcester orator 
seems not to have adverted to; and as that would 
have spoiled the effect of his moving appeal, the 
knowing ones readily excuse the omission; and 
that is, that thesj poor imprisoned missionaries. 



14 



from the moment of their trial and conviction, 
were tenderid by the competent authorities the of- 
fer of release and pardon, on the simple condition 
that they would either trd;e an oath to support the 
laws of the State orGeori;iH, or consent lo Ie.i\e 
the State without taking such oath. But let that 
pass. 

The speaker does, indeed, refer to the " instru- 
ment for the collection of revenue, well secured 
againsf, abuse, and alwciys re.spomible to Congress 
and the laus," for the purpose of passing an en- 
comium upon the bsnk. Tiie last report of the 
committee presents hut a s:k1 conimentary upon liis 
allegation of tecnritij agains! abuse; and, as if the 
bank itself " was pr'-determmed to falsify the 
praises of its very best friends, and to extend the 
range of infractions of the charter to its utmost 
width, it has s nee even refu-ed to acknowledge 
that resp mobility to Congress, expressly named in 
its chaitei', l;y denying to h committee of the 
House of llepreBentatives all access to its books 
and its proceedings. 

15ut the question of the tariff was a subject of 
high excitement to M.tssachuetts and the North; 
and the Worcester speech, for the purpose of 
alarming the people, declares, in effect, that tjie 
then pending election will decide the fate of the 
" agricultui-al and manufacturing interests," tliat 
" the breaking up the entire system, and ern-ing 
every vestige of it from tiie statute book," will 
result from the failure of his party. Here wa a 
subject that appealed directly to tlie citizens of 
New England; and the false attitude in which it 
was placed — filse, as hai^ been dcmor.slrated by 
subsequent events — was calculated to mislead 
©r deceive the ptople. Tlie bank miglit evince 
a temporary cunning by pouring out its money to 
circulate among the peo[)le infor-ation caiciilateii 
to alarm their fears and work up th Mr already 
"overexcited apprehensions." Was this not in- 
terference in politics — a most unjustifiable inter- 
ference .'' 

I again turn to the bank'.s Worcester speec 

'• Among the great interests of the country, Mr. President, 
there is one, which appears to me not to have attracted, from 
the people of this Commonwealth, a degree of attention, alto- 
getlier equal to its magnitude. 

"Mr. President, .among the bills which failed, at the last ses- 
sion, for want of the President's apjiroval, was one in which 
this State had a great pecuniary inteiest. It was the bill for 
thepaymentof interest to these States, the funds advanced by 
litem during the war, the principal of which had been paid, 
or assumed, by the Government of the United States. ' ' • • 

"But where a State has so direct and so heavy an interest, 
v,-here the justice of the case is so plain that men agree in it 
who agree in hardly any thing else, where her claim has passed 
Congress, without considerable opposition in either House, a 
refu.jal to approve the bill without giving the slightest reason, 
and he taking the advantage of the rising of Congress to give ii 
a silent go-by, /s an act tliat may well awaken the attention of 
the people in the Slates concerned. . • . • . 

"The principles of the administration are hostile to internal 
improvements. Here is another power, heretofore exercised 
in many instances, now denied. The administration now de- 
nies the power, except with qualifications, which cast an air of 
ridicule over the wliole subject; being founded on such dis- 
tinctions as between salt water and fresh water; places above 
custom-houses and places below; and others eqtially extraor- 
dinary." 

Here we find the bank taking ground in favor 
of a bill in which Massachusetts had a "great pe 
cuniary interest." We all supposed Ma.ssaclui- 
setts had been well paid for her claims for ser 



vices during the late war when she obtained ne:<r- 
!_y half a million of dollars imderthe administration 
of Andrew Jackson. She got from him what she 
never could obtain under an administration at the 
head of which was one of her own cilizci;.'^; and 
nov*' she c-implaiiis that interest on tliat cltim is 
not a lowed her! All who can remember the his- 
tory of our country twenty years, must recollect 
the nature of tlicse Massachusetts claims. Be- 
sides the interest on wiiat was tiliowed, she has 
behind a claim tor principal amDtinting to proba- 
bly more than half a million of dollars. When 
shf gets tlie in'e^e^t on one, she will claiin the 
principtd of tlie other; and to that wid succeed 
another claim fur interest upon tlie last sum. It 
is believed that Massachusetts has received qtiite 
as much for her war claims as she was ever enti- 
tled to; and as for the other States, claiming a bal- 
ance of interest, it is well known that much was 
ailov/ed them in those settlements which wa? ex- 
pended without the authority of the Genera! Gj- 
vernment, and was exchisively the ex])eiidiiiire of 
the State. If the bill allowing interest on ci;iiins 
to the States, together with tUe land bill of 1832, 
had become laws, it is quite certain the Govern- 
ment would have been obliged to resort to loans, 
or to increased direct or indirect taxes. The ve- 
toes of the Presittent, having also partially check- 
ed ap])ropi'iations fv)r internal improvements in 
some States, to t'le entire exclusion of other States, 
has probably already waved to the people an ex- 
traordinary expe;iditi;re of the ptiblic money to 
the amount of more than a hur.dred millions of 
dollars. 

We next find the bank's speech laying in strong 
claims for it.* friends to the title of conservators of 
tl'ie public liberty: 

•'Sir, our condition is singularly paradoxical. We have an 
administration opposed to tiie constitution; we have an oppo- 
sition which is the main support of the Government and the 
laws. We have an administration which denies to the very 
Government which it administers powers wliich it has exer- 
cised lor lorty years; it ilenies tlie protecting power, the bank 
power, and the power of internal improvement. The great 
and leading measures of the national legislature are all resisted 
by it. These, strange as it may seem, depend on the opposi- 
tion for sujiport. We have, in t nth, an opposition witliout 
which it v/ould be difficult for the Government to get along at 
all. I appeal to every member of Congress present (and I am 
happy to see many here) to say, what would nov/ become of 
the Government if all members of the opposition were with- 
drawn from Congress. For myself, I declare my own coniic- 
tion that its continuance miglit piobably be very short. Taka 
away the opposiuon from Congress, and let us see what proba- 
bly would be done the first session. The tariff would be en- 
tirely repealed. Every enactment having protection by du- 
ties as its main object, would be struck from the statute book. 
This would be the first thing done. Every work of internal 
improvement would be stopped. This would follow as a mat- 
ter of course. The bank would go down, and a treasury mo- 
ney agericy would take its place. The judiciary act of 1769 
would be repealed, so that tlie Supreme Court should exercise 
no power of revision over State decisions. And who would re- 
sist the doctrines of Nullification) Look, sir, to the votes 
of Congress for the last three years, and you will see that each 
of these things would, in all human probability, take place at 
the next session, if the opposition were to be withdrawn. The 
constitution is threatened, therefore— imminently threatened — 
by the very fact that those are entrusted wiih its administra- 
tion who are hostile to its essential powers." 

Here we find the virtues of the opposition set 
ofFin striking contrast to the vices of the friends of 
the administration; wlio dare dispute in relation 
to the bank, that 

"Even itsfm'lifigs leaned to virtue's side," when 
the virtues of the immaculate minority, whose 



15 



cause it espoused, are talceu into consideration. 
It it be a fitiling', after the positive asseverations of 
the president of the bank and (he Board of Direct- 
ors, Ih.t they would abstain from all inteference 
]'A po itics, \hat failing- must be overlooked when 
we consider tiiat the opp )sition which they sup- 
ported were tiie "main support of the Govern- 
ment and th.e Imvs," and that "without this oppo- 
sition, it u ould be difficult for tlie Government to 
gft alotig- at ail!" ''The constitution wa> threat- 
ened, imminently threatened," and thc-re was 
none but the opposition wlio could "resist the doc- 
trines of nullification." What coidd the b;ink do 
better than furnish funds to print and distiibute 
forty thousand, a hundred thousand, a million of 
tpeeches, to save the Union, the cwnstitiition, eve- 
ry thing- we hold dear.' 

Great as was tlie danc^er— quite equal to total 
darknes-,lhe absence of all g-o.id — from the friends 
of the administration in C^nfji-ress, there was a 
iffeater evil from the attempt to extend the power 
of tl e Executive; and the bank had an excuse for 
noing-any thing-, even usurping- power itself, to put 
ciown Executive usurpation. Let us see what it 
lias to offer on this subject. 

'' Bill, sir, in my opinion, a yet greater danger threatens the 
consiitntion and ilie Guveinment, and that is irom the attempt 
!o extend the potccr of the Executive at the expense o/alj the 
other bramhis of the Governmejit, and of the people them- 
selves. Whatever accustomed power is denied to the consti- 
iic.ion, — wliaiever accustomed power is denied to Congress or 
ihe Judiciary, ?ione is denied to the Executive. Here, there 
i3 no retrcnchmenl; here, no apprehension is Colt for the hber- 
ties oC the people; here, it is not tlioughi necessary to erect 
barriers againsi corruption. 

■' I begin, sir, with the subject of removals from office for 
opinion's salre — as I think, one of the most signal instances of 
the attempt 10 extend the Executive power. This has been a 
leading measure, a cardinal point, in ihe course of administra- 
tion. It has proceeded, from the first, on a settled system of 
pro!!cription for political opinions; and this system it has 
carried inio operation to the full extent of its ability. The 
Presidenihas not only filled all vacancies with his own friends, 
generally iho.^e most distingui.?hed as personal pariizans, but 
he has turned out political opponents, and thus created vacan- 
cies, in order that he might fill them with his own friends. I 
lliink the number of removals and appointmenis is said to he 
two thousand. While the administration audits friends have 
l)een auempiing to circumscribe and decry the powers belong- 
ing 10 otiter branches, it has seized into its own hands a patro- 
nage most pernicious and corrupting, an authority over men's 
n-.ean.'? of living most tyraimical and odious, and a power to 
punish freemen for political opinions altogether intolerable. 

" And what did wn witness, sir. when the administration ac- 
inally commenced, in the 'full exercise of its authority! One 
universal sweep, one undistinguished blow, levelled ag'ainstall 
v.-no were not of the successful party. No worth, public or 
jirivaie; no service, civil or military, was of power to resis. 
I lie relentless greediness of proscription. SoIi-!iers of the late 
war, soldiers of the revolutionary war, the vcrj- contemporai-y 
ol' the liberties of the countiT-, all lost their situations. No | 
oifice wa-s too high, and none too low; for office was the spoil, I 
and a/.' //(c .9/>oi7-9. It was sail!, belonged to the cjc/oj-.v.'" ' ' "I 

The administration has been g-uiUy of the unpar- 
donable sin of preferring- its fiends to its enemies 
in makinJif appointments to olHce; nay, it has hard- 
ly d me thi.s, for it is well known :i large share of 
the patronage and the offices of the present atl- 
ministration have been bestowed on those who are 
anything; but friends. Will the bank pi-, ase to 
look in any direction where its friends have the 
ascendency' do they allow their opponents .iny 
fsvor when they have the power' Turn to Phila- 
delphia, v.here even the humble watchmen were 
turned out in drove."?; at New York, wliere the 
municipal agents were changed, and even cirmen 
denied their accustomed employ; at Connecticut, 



where in almost the same brep.th some three hun- 
dred judges, justices, anil other officers were driv- 
en from office during the panic year; at even the 
State of Massachusetts, where especial good care 
is taken tiiat no ft lend of the admimstr.ition sh.-»U 
receive any lucrative or honorable appointment. 
The bank, without d(;ubt, might be brought to 
consent, in some instances, to the appointment of 
friends of the ailministration; but the conditions on 
which it would grant favors would be w ell under- 
.stO"d to be the same as were made to Webb and 
Noali, and to Jasper Harding, when it loaned 
the one some seventy thousand, and the other some 
twenty-four thousand doUais, without competent 
securiiy; they must consent to be sold, soul and 
body, to the enemy ! 

We turn to another topic of the bank' Worcess- 
ter production: 

"And is a press that is purchased or pensioned, more free 
tlian a press that is feuered? Can the people look lor truths 
to partial sources, whether rendered partial through fear or 
tiuough favor? ^Vhy sh-ill not a manacled press be trusted 
with ilie maintenance and delence of pojjular riglitsJ Because 
it is to be supposed to be under the inlluence of a power 
which may prove greater than the love of truth. Such a 
press may screen abuses iii Government, or be silent. It may 
fear to speak. And may it not fear to speak, too, when its con- 
ductor.s, if they speak in any but one way, may lose their 
means of livelihood? Is dependance on Government for bread 
no temptation to screen its abuses? Will the press always 
speak the truth, though the truth, if spoken, may be the means 
of silencing it for the luture? Is the truth in no danger? is the 
watchman under ho temptation, when he can neiilier proclaim 
the approach of national evils, nor seem lo descry them, without 
the loss of his place." 

"Some fifty or sixty editors of leading journals have been 
appointed to office by the present Executive. A stand has 
been made against this proceeding in the Senate, with partial 
success; but by means uf appointments which do not come be. 
fore the Senate, or other means, the number has been carried to 
the extent I have mentioned. • • « ■ . 

"There can, sir, be no objection to the appointment of an 
editor to ofhce, if he is the fittest man. There can be no objec- 
tion to considering the services which, in that or any other 
capacity, he may have rendered his fow7!rr»/. ' ' " 
But the ground of complaint is, that the aiding, by the press, 
of the election of an individual, is rewarded by that same 
individual witli the gift of moneyed rffices. Men are turned 
out of office and others put in, and receive salaries from the 
public Treasury on the ground, either openly avowed or falsely 
denied, that they have rendered services in the election of the 
very individual who makes this removal and makes this ap- 
pointment. Every man, sir, must see tl-.at this is a fatal stab at 
the purity of the press." 

How does the Bank stand condemned from its 
own moutli? Has it not directly !<ought up news- 
papers and editors like cattle; in the market.' 
Where the administr^ition has employed editors to 
the amount of hundreds, the bank has done the 
Sime thing to the amount of thousands. Tlio 
bank h.-vs paid money directly to newspaper edi- 
tors and others for electioneering services, a jjor- 
tion of which was the money of the Government. 
When has the administr.Htion done as much.' 
Never! 

But the President has occasionally appointed 
editors of newsjiajiers to office; and the ground of 
rompiainl is, that the aiding by the press of the 
election of an individual, if rewarded by that same 
individual with the gift of moneyed offices. Now- 
let us put another case, which inight have hap- 
pened. Suppose the forty thousand Worcester 
speeches had accomplished their intended object, 
and [ilaced a certain candidate in the cliiir of the 
President; and let us suppose for these services, 
for this speaking and writing, and the bank for 



16 



publishing-, that " the aiding, bj' the press, of the 
election of an indivWual, is rewarded by that same 
individual with the gift, of moneyed offices." 
Wherein would tlie two cases differ? Yet in the 
last mentioned event, v/e should have witnessed no 
mawkish display of affected fear of corruption, 
such as stands out so prominent in the cases jubt 
quoted. 

A.;aui hear the bank versus the right of the Pre- 
sident's veto: 

" If the! President is at liberty to negative any, or all of these 
laws, at pleasure, or rather to refuse to render the bills laws, 
by approving them, and still may neglect to return them to 
Congress for renewed action, he will hold a very important 
control over the legislation of this country." * • ' 

"A silent veto on the Bank bill would have been the inevita- 
ble fate of that bill, it its friends had not refused to fix on any 
term for adjournment before the President should have had 
the bill so long as to be required, by constitutional provisions, 
to sii'n it, or to send it back with his reasons for not signin? 
it. The two Houses did not agree, and could not agree, to 
fix a day for adjournment, until tlie bill was sent to the Presi- 
dent, and then care was taken to fix on such a day as should 
allow him the whole constituuonal period. This seasonable 
presentiment rescued the bill from the power of the silent 
negative." 

Fortunate had it been for the bank if it had 
taken m asures that the " inevitable fate" of the 
bank bill had been a silent veto! Never was there 
a Siatc paper sought for with such avidity by the 
pgople — never did any public document, in so 
short a sp^ce of time, throw so great a flood of 
liglU over the community, as did the veto message 
of the President. " A silent veto" was prevented, 
and the bank intended it for evil; but an unerring 
Providence turned that evil into good. 

One more extract from the bank's electioneering 
document, and I am done with that: 

"If the President be re-eleeted, with concurreut and co- 
operating majorities in both houses of Congress, I do not see 
that in four years more, all the powers vf hich is suffered to re- 
main in the Governmewt, will be holden by the Exeoutive hanil. 
Nullification will proceed, or will be put down by a power as 
unconslituiional as it?elf. The revenues will be managed by a 
Treasury bank — the use of the veto will be considered as sanc- 
tioned by the public voice — the Senate, if not "cut down," will 
be bound down; and commanding the army and the navy, and 
holding all places of trust to be party property, what will then 
be left, sir, foi constitutional reliance"!" 

"I fully believe, sir, that a great majority of the nation de- 
sire a change in the administration, and that it will be difficult 
for party organization or party denunciation to suppress the ef- 
fective utterance of that general wish. .... 
' I fully believe, sir, that gratifying intelligence is 
already on the wing. While we are yet deliberating in Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania is voting. To-day she elects her mem- 
bers to the next Congress. I doubt nottheresult of that election 
will show an important change in public .sentiment in that 
State. 1 cannot doubt that the great States adjoining her 
holding similar constitutional principles, and having similar in 
terests, will feel the impulse of the same causes which affects 
her. 

" At least, sir, let the star of Massachusetts be the last which 
shall be seen to fall from heaven, and to plunge into the utter 
darkness of disunion. Let her shrink back — let her hold others 
back, if she can — at any rate let her keep herself back from this 
gidf, full at once of fire and of bluckness; yes, sir, as far as hu- 
man foresight can scan, or human imagination (iithom, full of 
the fire and the blood of civil war, and of the thick darkness of 
general political disgrace, ignominy, and ruin." _ 

The prediction tiiat "a great msjority of the 
nation desired a change" of the administration, 
was quite as true as was the anticipation that in 
four years more "all the power which is suffered 
to remain in the Government will bo holden by 
the Executive hand;" or that "nullification will 
proceed." Andif the nation has been kept back 
from the "gulf, full, at once of fire and black- 
ness," " and the blood of civil war, and of the 



thick darkness of general political disgrace, igno- 
miny and ruin," it is most apparent that n< iv erthe 
"star of Massachusetts," nor the Bank of the 
United Statt-s, nor yet the forty tluiusand Wor- 
ctster speeches which tlie bank paid for printing 
and circulating, have in anywise tended t i avert 
those calamities. 

Such, Mr. Presid nt, is a sample of'tlie leading 
Cdntcnts of the Worcester speecli — of one of the 
greatest efforts ever made to influence the result 
ofoueoflhe most important elections that ever 
took place in this or any other country; a giant ef- 
fort, which, if it had not been manifcsily on the 
wrong side, must have been attended with all the 
success that the right deserves. Let it be remem- 
bered that tills great electioneering eflort was 
made by the bank in the year 1332: let it be re- 
membered that since that time, (to wit, in Decem- 
ber, 1833,) the Boaid of Directors, by a solemn 
vote, has declared "The bank has never iiittrjered 
in the sli<^hfest dcaircc in ■politics, and never rnjlu- 
encedor sought to injiuence elections;" that this vote 
liLis been backed up, so far as positive assertion 
would go, by the friends of tlie bank in both 
Houses of Congress, and that the positive declara- 
tion has been, both before and since, repeated by 
the president of bank. Kemembeiing this, what 
deptndance can be placed on the tnit i of the 
avi rments of any committee who shall bpru ve that 
the president of the bank and the Boird of Direct- 
ors acting under him, would not conceal from 
them all the truth thtt made against them 
which thf y knew would not get out in spite of 
their utmost tffurts? 

Mr. President, I have shown you that the cap- 
tion of the whitewMshiiig committee, introducing 
that part of the expenditures of the Bank of the 
United States paid for printing, &c. is a inisromer, 
le ding to a faUe issue — disgraceful to the Board 
of Directors, if intended as a deception on the 
committee, and little creditable to tlie !nteilii,''ence 
of the committee itself, if suffered to be there, 
placed without a full understanding of its import. 

Meagre as is the information contained in the list 
of expenditures, presented by the bank; reluc- 
tantly as v.'as exti.a-ted the skel ton of facts 
which the bank found it impossibl - longer to con- 
ceal; it is, nevertheless, a doctiment of immense 
magnitude in assisting us rightly to esiin^nte the 
value of his services, who has eminently contri- 
buted to put an end to this institution. 

I will only read a few items of the long list, for 
the purpose of making a passing comment upon 
them. The whole list ought to be p ihjibhed in 
every newspaper of the Union: it ought to be 
stereotyped and published at the Ii.jiiiiiing of 
eveiy session of Congiess, as of itstlf a most con- 
clusive reason against making any such grant as 
was contained in the act of 1816, establiihing the 
Bank of the United States. 

The first item of printing commences with the 
year 1829; it is the following: 

"To Garden and Thompson, for trienii.il re- 
port, &c., «24 87. 

This Garden and Thompson, who subsequently 
received from the bank their hundreds and their 
thousands of dollars for different jobs, are un- 
derstood to have published a weekly newspaper. 



17 



called the ''Mechanics' Ft-ee Press," then the only 
newspaper in the city of Philadelphia, oppose 1 to 
the recharter of the United States Bank. The op- 
position of that paper was soon si enced. It will 
be seen that the course of the bank has been not 
less to reward its friends than to buy up its 
enemies. 

According' to this statement, the whole expense 
for extraordinary printing in the year 1829 was 
only ?105 25. 

In the first half year of 1830, there was paid for 
printing and distributing- Smith snd McDuffie's 
reports to the two Houses of Congress, in favor of 
the bank, <p.3,285 17. Among the item«, Garden 
and Thompson print to the value of $1,685 75. 
p. P. F. Degrand, a foreigner and broker at Bos- 
ton, whose officious inteif'erence in all matters re- 
lating to elections, has been long well known in 
New England, furnished the same to the amount 
of $258; and N. Biddle's bill for distributing, &c. 
[Could " &c." mtan writing and preparing re- 
ports'] was $700. 

The second half year, (all for Smitli ana McDuf- 
fie's reports, and Gallatin's pamphlet,) amounts to 
$2,.':91 50. Again we have a payment to Gar- 
den and Thr.nipson of $691; to N. Biddle for dis- 
tributing ?.IcDuffie's n-port, f)i375 — to the same for 
printing' Gallatin's pamphlet, $1000. There can 
be little dou'it, the truth is falsified here; the sum 
of $1000 was probably paid for xvriH.n^ the report, 
because E. Littell, in the very next line, is paid 
"for printing the same, $300" Mr. Degrand 
again comrs in for distributin[[' Gallatin's pam- 
phlet,. toOO. 

The expense for extraordinary printing in 1830, 
is given at $5,876 67. 

in 1831, for ihe first half year, the expenditures 
swelled to the lirge amount of $10,401 74. 
Benton's speech in the Senate, which wan not an- 
swered in (hat body by the friends nfthe bank, had gone 
forth and been published in m^st of the democra- 
tic newspapers of the country. The bank imme- 
diately set to work, and employed writers and re- 
viewers, and printers, to counteract tlie eiFect of 
that speech. Hitherto the b uilc had gone on very 
quietly, paying for the circulation of extra reports 
made in both Houses of Congress, by committees 
friendly to it : these repoits invar ably presented 
precisely such, and no other facts and arguments, 
than could be elaborated from the partial state- 
ments of the bank itself. But the repetition of 
the opinion expressed by the President, that the 
bank ought not to be rechartered, and the general 
publication of Benton's speech in 1830-31, creat- 
ed a necessity that the bank should arouse its 
friends in all parts of the country. 

This account commences with a payment to 
Gales and Scaton for printing and distributing Mr. 
Gallatin's pamphlet, §1,300; $2,000 to Nicholas 
Biddle for tlie distribution of Smith and McDuf- 
fic's reports; $7:^3 75 for distributing the ^me 
Vat New York; $123 to Gray and Bowen of Bos- 
Von for 2000 copies review of bank report in the 
Uqrth Amcirican lleview. It will be bor.ne in 
miivj that t!ie bank not onlv subsidized the news- 
paper press, but that the principal reviews of the 



country, which should be devoted to subjects 
purely scientific and literary, and which claim con- 
fidence for their impartiality, were paid for blind- 
folding the people in relation t ' the true designs 
MuX intents of that institntion. Jesper Harding in 
this half year receives] §440 for 11,000 extra pa- 
pers. His paper, the Pennsylvania Inquirer, had 
taken ground in favor of the administration: itbe- 
ciime important that its influence should be pur- 
chased into the interest of the bank. It was so 
purchased. Not only was Jesper Harding em- 
ployed in jobs of printing to a considerable amount, 
but he was suflered to contract a debt, as ap- 
pears in another part of the report of the com- 
mittee, of $23,490 40, without security for its 
payment, and not one cent of it probably ever was, 
or ever will be paid. 

" James Wilson, 25,000 copies of McDuffie's re- 
port, and 25,000 address to the State Legisla- 
tures, folding, &c., $1,447 75. 
This James Wilson hved west of the Alli^gha- 
nies, and these publications were intended ti) in- 
fluence public opinion in Ohio, Kentucky, and the 
grc^at west. The report very prudently omits to 
state that the original bill showed that these 25,- 
000 copies each of Messrs. McDuffie and Smith's 
reports and addresses to members of the St.ite Le- 
gislatures, were furnished "agreeably to order, 
and letters from John Sargeant, Esq." and that 
tliis gentleman was the bank's candidate for Vice 
President, who came here during ihe panic win- 
ter at tha head of a committee, demandmg, in th.e 
name of the Stale of Pennsylvania, the r> storation 
of thi deposiles to the bank. That flict is shown 
in the memorial of the Government directors to 
both Houses of Congress, in December, 1833. 

"To Carey and Lea, for printing Professor Tuck- 
er's article, and 1000 of Gallatin on banking, 
$2,850." 

These gentlemen, now that their occupation as 
bank publishers is about to terminite, were to be 
provided for by the subscription which tlie Joint 
Library Committee had reported in their favor, 
for five hundred copies of the History of Con- 
gress. 

The extra printing for the last half of 1831 
amounted only to ?751 50^i, a large portion of 
which was paid simply to editors for publishing 
reports in their newspapers, which, ordinarily, 
would have gone in as a matter of course: thus 
Uuff Green (then supposed to be oppcjsed to tlie 
baidc) is paid $28 for publishing the report of the 
stockholders; E. [presumed H.] Niles receives 
j^70 for puhlisliing in the Weekly Register (a pa- 
per that coMtains no advertisements) the report of 
the Bank of the United States; Garden and Thomp- 
son again for publish'ng report of stockholders 
[in their newspaper probably] and extras $191 57; 
J:imes V/ilsoti (the peculiarly favored printer of 
the State) for publishing repoit of stockholders, 
$63 75. In th's w;iy editors were paid for servi- 
ces that cost them nothing; for inserting matter 
such as is usually given in a newspaper as gene- 
ral information, and without expectation of pay— a ■ 
very considerable amount. In this manner "gyjden 
opinions" were bought, and almost every euitor^ 



IS 



k gratitude for the almost unasked generosity of 
|ie bank, was induced to espouse its cause with 
;al. 

1 he tot il amount for printing in 1831, as per the 
ank's account, was §11,153 24A- 
I In 1832, tiie first lialf year presents only 
1990 35. Ofthesa there are two items to Carey 
. Lea, one for paper and extva binding, of 
150 50, and the other for expensss (writing the 
rticle probabh',) attendiniiC Quarterly Review, 
y orders, §100. Gales h Seiton com^ in with a 
harge of $800 for 20,000 copies of "a pai'-pblet 
onc'erningtlie bank," and $360 for lOOO copies of 
IcDuffie's and Adams's Reports. 

For the last half year the expense was 5516,499 
4^. It commences wiih the wel! kuovvii namt; 
f Jcsper Harding, for printing review of the veto, 
nd ex-pensts incident thereto, (meaning, in all 
ikelihood, pay for writing,") and 200 handbills, 
rdered by Col. J. $321 '78; Edward Olmsted, 
ank documents, J^62'i 11; same for ]irinting re- 
iew, 5f,4l8 25. On inquiry, I find that this Mr. 
)imsled is neither editor (!r printer, but a lawyer, 
ctijie; as treasurer for a "You:ig Men's Clay Com- 
fiittce," a borly especially constituted tu operate 
iH the elections. John S. Kiddle, for printing 
nd circulating reports of McD'ifTie, Smith, 
k.danis, and the Secretary of the Treasury, thf- 
peech of Webster on the President's veto, and 
eview of the veto message, is paid $2,580 50. 
;'iiis Mr. Ri'ld'e was neither printer, editor, or 
iwyer, but a merchant, and Treasurgr of the Old 
klen's Chy Committee, appointed, like the other, 
o opera'eon the elTCtions William Fry, printer 
f the N^tioiwl Gazette, is also paid §1,708 for 
3,100 Webster's speecli on the veto message, 
rid»f50l 60 for 22,800 Adams's and McDuffie's 
leporls. James Wilson, of Pittsburg, is paid 
580 "for printing don- for the bank," as per his 
wn account rendered. This item leaked out in 
onsequence of another gentleman of the same 
ame taking the letter from the post office, i.nd 
ndiiig in it Mr. Eiddle's drjifc. Wilson denied the 
urprjse uf this payment at tiie time, by equivoca- 
on; but aft. r tli;: election had passed, the truth 
ame out- 

'V/iltisvn A. Merwin, prtnting General Jnckson's 
■vdo, 30,000 c.pies, wra]?ping and distributing'' 
lhcin,$558." 

Th'.s the chairman of ilie committee inform ;d 
ne iiS we rnay well suppose, was a mistake; it 
,houM b<J "Gena-alJticksijn vetoed 30,000 copies." 
This expenditure was in the city of New York._ 
Vfler this comes the charge of Nathan Hale, of 
Safcton, for 40,000 copies of Webster's Worcester 
speech, and 12,500 copies of Webster's speech on 
,ank veto, he, an:ounting to $2,422 GJ; and two 
Items amounting to $766 40, for prm< ng m Ger- 
man, extracts from Webster^s speech and olher 
articles. The attempt io argue the German po- 
pvdation into a belief of the necessity and utility 
of the bank, or to enlist them in a crusade against 
General Jackson and the democracy, wps an ut- 
ter lailure. „, 

The expense for 1832 was $18,490 79^. The 
first half of 1833, presents charges for Jl,30S,and 



the last half amounts to ^jl ,888 03. Of this. Gales 
and Sea'on huve i'^l,895 for 50,000 bank report 
arid other documents, and William Fry has $870 
for two items of charge ^in bank reports. Total 
expen<;e for the veai', quite moderate, is 
JL',193 03. 

Hut it is tlie account for the memorable year of 
1834 that presents the most audacious attempt to 
excite public opiruon and influence the elections, 
that ever has come within my observation. The 
items for the first half ytar are .such as should at- 
tract universal attention. Considering- wiiat took 
place day after day within tiie Capitol during the 
first s-ix months of the year 1834, and looking at 
the following items in the bank's account, can we 
be surprized at the great agitation which prevail- 
ed? Was the like of this ever belore presented? 
Every item of this unparalleled account should be 
repeated: 

Fer first halt" year cii.lin.T .30ii> .Iimo, viz: 
To Diilf Gieeii, lor priiiung 50,000 copies 

01' Wclji^tcrs report of liie ComniiUee 

of Finance .... $1,750 00 

25,000 cnpiesof Clay's speech on (Icpos'ites 1.000 00 
50,000 Calliuuii'H speech on do. • • 1,0<J0 00 

50.000 WcDutiie's speech on do. - - l.t'iW 00 

50,a>iJ adililiotial of Calhoun's - - 1,0(10 00 

15,000 additional of Mc0ufiie's • - 4oO 00 

SC,200 00 

Gales and Seaton, for 0,.593 Clav's speech - 570 00 

50,000 H. Biir.iey's do. - ' - 

o,fKJ9 of Southard's do. 

.5,000 of Humingdi.n's do. 

10,000 of Webster's do. - 

10.000 :=econd edition of Southard's do. - 

3,000 Poiiidexter's do. 

3,(X)0 Sjirague's do. ... 

3,000 Frelmshiiysen's do. 

l,l-X)0 Swing's do. .... 

6,000 do. do., second edition 

10,000 of Hinney's report on the pension 

fund, ..... 

20,009 Senate's report on deposites 
7,01)0 Poindexter'sdo., second edition, and 
10.001) do. Webster's 
HMXK) Archer's speech on bank question, 
For binding, paper, envelopes, &c. for 

Uinnev r.nd others 



P.iper and folding ' • • 

50,(W0 cofjiesof iVIr. A<Hms's speech 

5,000 copie.5 speech of Allen, of Ken- 
tuc'Ky, . . . - . 

2,000 additional of Allen's do. 

2,000 Corwin's speech 

.5.000 Leigh's speech on Protest - 

1,000 Clayton's do. on the bank 

D,OIX) Clay '.s last speecli on bank • 

1,000 McKennon's .■speech 

2 50npaini!h!ets Mr. Wcb.'=ter's do. 

10 000 do. Wilde's da. 

Printing extra half sheet containing state- 
ments concerning the bank, 8,lt)0 co- 
P'ca . . . - . 

10,00:1 cnpios Webster's spocchon renew- 
al bank charier . . . . 

5,000 do. Leigh's on do. 

5,0'JO do. Leigh's do., 8 pages added, 

3,000 copies D'xnn's speech 

75.000 do. Webster's spe«ih on power 
assumed over the bank by the E.xecu- 
live. . . - . . 

5,0ct0 Harden's speech 

Paper, seals, envelopes.&c. 

William Fry, for 1,000 National Gazettes, 
and prinliiisr report Ex. Committee, 

Coniirevcial Ileiald, .'(ir priming Adams, 
IJinney, anil Webster's speeche.s, 

C. Aleximdcr, for printing report of E.\- 
change Committee 



3,000 (X) 


235 43 


20.9 00 


2.S8 30 


65-t 10 


as 9s 


103 47 


(5.^ 'j3 


157 32 


2.13 ti2 


2.93 30 


577 80 


524 m 


288 30 


40 00 


301 29 


2,833 00 


208 60 


10,^ C4 


102 (J4 


125 00 


40 00 


?W 20 


;.s w) 


290 30 


3f3 20 



7,129 52 



132 <i0 
104 30 
156 45 

122 22 



S5,033 29 



2,681 00 
320 -18 
3(:0 00 



80,429 70 




National Printing do., and ,\dams'e tperch, 46 00 



^m &} 



19 



\. II.-i!e. tbr :.,ij;)0 co;)ie:?,A<!ams"3speecli,- S5 T'O 
W. B. To winciiil, for 50,000 copies teporc ' 

K\'chau!je C;uiniif.co - - ■ 1,375 00 



5104 050 51 



Here Is $6,200 (o one printer, and f.15,642 51 
to another, for printing' s-pteclies vvlticli liad no 
other object tliaa to pri.duce .or increase excite- 
meiit in every part of the United States. The 
amotnit paitl to \hc same printers, under virueis of 
the two Houses of Con;,rrcss, was en:. raious; every 
thin^ was printed that cnuld be rr^ade to bear on 
the questiui-'; and extraordlirary numbers of i very 
thins^ that could be suppos d to have an eflect, 
were ordered to be furnisl:ed at the public expense. 
That, however, v/as not enoufjli; l!ie bank must 
pay for tind circulate addi'ional numbers of re- 
ports of comniittees; and thousami.s, ter.s and 
hundreds of thoiifap.ds of speeches c&lcidated 10 
alarm the people — *o exasperate such of t'lem 
against the Exec.Uive as supposed thc-iv interests 
had been touched — to eitiier lash them into fury 
or overwhelm them in do.^po.idency — to either 
upturn the whole business of the country, and in- 
volve its ci'izc-ns in a cornrnon ruin, or else to 
seize upon and control the Government. It would 
be wed ir.deed for the bank if it could show that 
its president a.id dii'ecfKrs iiad no hi^.nd in this 
impositio'V; it would l5e to die credit of members 
or Congress, who made ?n di speeches ua llie bank, 
should consider it an object to jjrint and circvdate 
in her justirication, if il-.ey cou'd no\V show that 
the institiiti;>n they praise was as pure, as useful, 
as inclispensaide as ttiey repi-esc nt-:-d it to be. 

The items of cbarg'e are brcught do vn to t!ie 
oOth September, 1834 '' he espenditarcs of the 
last quarter v.- ere $2,0] 1 50; tiiis added to $'24,- 
252 51 for tlie two first quarters, makes tlie Ag- 
g-rega':e am^iunt for the th.-ee first quaiters of the 
year $26,284 01. 

Let ns Kee w^hat was the aid furnished by the 
bank to a';si«t members of Congr.ss in their se- 
veral secuoris of country. Every speech was 
circula'ed without stmt I'.iat could lie fuppnsed 
to operate. It was declared, and rcpeateii here 
and elsewiierc, that President Ja.kson had 
scarcely a friend left sc',!{]i of the Ptjtomac — that 
the m.easure of removing- the deposites was nni- 
versuliy condemned by tlie entire South. That 
the South miijh: understand tlie reasons why they 
ought to pass sentence of condem^ia'.ion on the 
President ar.d the Secretary ©ft lie Treasury — that 
the proceedmj^s of the Execi;iive mip^ht be nul- 
lified at one;-, tiie hank fmnishcd 100,000 speech- 
es of one So'itli Carolina g^endemin, ai d 65,000 
of another. To operite on old Virgiida — to pre- 
sent her the "awful alter natives" which had 
hedged her i 1 — to onvmce iier that t!ie «.vils of 
a violated cons'itulion are a mere trifle vdien 
compared with that destructioii wKIcli iniist fol- 
low the roni(>v."iI of the deposiies <rom an imcon- 
stitutional iiai.k — fifteen ti.ousand speeches of 
one, and ten thousand of anotlier of li-r Senators, 
are circuht<-d. A nicnibtr of Georj^ia, (Wildj.) 
wiicse fortune it has been to sufi'er inaityrilom in 
the cause of the bank, was, by the same bank 



enabled to spc:.k in his own and the bank's be 
half ten thousand times, in as many speeches, fo 
the benefit of that Slate. Mississippi was '.at 
nished with ten thousand of her Senator's, which' 
like a child ever-fed with kindness, she repuii 
only with deep ing'ri-tilude. Kentucky come: 
in for thirty-stven thousand five hundred ant 
ninety-nine frtnn a member of tiie upper House 
seven thousand from one, and five thousand frorr 
another membei- of the House of Tie presentatives 
and she ins really eviiiced a more efficient grati 
tu'le to the bank than any other Stat^ of th( 
Union. She is the oidy ins'ance of" conclusive 
demonstution, that a mnnej-<_'d monopoly can con 
trol the voice of a wl;o!e communi'v. Wheth-:-] 
she will persevere in fighting the battles of tht 
bynk, is quite uncertuin. Pennsylvania has al 
ways been highly favored of tb-e bank, and mos 
ungrateful was she at first for the continued kind 
n .ss. Fifiy ihousiin:! speeches and ten thousanc 
reports from a great cliam;)ion of lite bank^ :/idcc 
by one thousand extra speechesfromfinother of he; 
member.-i from tliew'-s^ of her mountains, scarceh 
produced a vibration of sentiment in the Keystone 
State. She !ia:5, however, n-ade amends for ail 
by sufTerirsg a minority of her peojde to clec 
such a Legislature as has thrown itself into th< 
arms of Old Nek, and grante;! what hf could no 
obtain here: a chartered monopoly of thirty -fiv< 
milii'jns of dollars, calculated to gr/nd into th( 
dust and oppress the people of that State. 

"The canal a solitude and the lake a deser 
waste of waters," comes in from Ohio in thesha))« 
of 7,000 appeals from a Senator, and 2,00( 
speeches irom a Representative — all p;iid for anc 
circnhited by the bank. Rut X\\^ young lion o 
the west, in spite of al', declares its independenc* 
ofihe ba\ik. New Jersey had tht; bene fit of 13, 
000 from one, and 3,090 from another of her Sena 
t(n"S; but, "calm a'l a summer's morning," one o 
these Senators yields his place in this body. In th( 
otiier H use of Congress, and in her legislature 
>he supports the adrnmistration imdth.e vetooflh( 
btmk. J^ittie IJclaware, aldiough considered safe 
war, deemed much more sure vith 1,000 speeches 
of her able Senator; and as a "miss is as goo.! as : 
mile," foiu-teeu vntes, in a .^^eneral canvass of ths 
State, only stood between her and her emaiicipa 
lion trom the rule of the bank. To the empire 
S' ate of New York, meagerly supported with : 
single 3.000 edition of one near slighted speed 
from its anti-masonic region, is lurnished 50,000 o 
the mendacious report of the E.xchange Commit 
tee, for whicit the pi-ess of the secretary of thi 
Hartfordconveition receives fromthe bank $1,37^ 
as a largess. Connecticut gets no corap'dmen 
from the bank in the Senate; but 5,000 speeche; 
oi one of her members, of the House could no 
prt-vent her Irom nniting with those legislature: 
which hr.vo directed tlicir Senators to vote fi) 
expunging the condemnatory resolution of th; 
Senate iVom its .Journal. Vermont and Nev 
Hampshire receive no coiTipliment fiom tin 
h^mk in thoi.isunds or ev^^n hundreds of ])ub 
liMied speeches; nor w:is it necessary, ior the iirs 
was d-emed sufiiciently subservient without fur 
ther training; and the Granite SUte was too incot 



20 



rigibly obstinate in her opposition to the bank to 1 ing community was, in many places lashed into a 
thank Mr. Biddle for any compliment of the kind, warfare against the administration. Forgetting 
Khode Island was then tiiought safe without pur- every tiling tliat was due to the Executive for 
chasing the speeches, as sh.:; needed not to pur- what it liad done to subserve the interests of com- 
chase either of her Senators, for none were more | raerce.to retrieve the propertj- that had been unlaw- 



faithful to the bank in their votes. The people of 
that State now repudiate the bank, v/hile the 
bank is able to retain two Senators for the entire 
term of three years, and one or' tliem tor five 
years. Massachusetts (and why should not apart 
of this go to New Hampshire for what she once 
was, and what she once contained!") — Massichu- 
setts comes in for greater jrlorification on account 
of published speeches, (some of which were and 
some were not delivered,) and for reports sup- 
plying the place of speeches, than any otiier State 
of the Union. Indeed, Massachusetts and South 
Carolina seem to have been honored by the bank 
beyond any other States; tlie first iirobably be- 
cause in her war agai?ist nuilification, slie liad fas 



(ully seized, and to secure the rights of trade and 
intercourse in all parts of the world, the merchants, 
in some of the prlnci|)al seaports, fought the ad- 
ministration with a'l the infuriate zeal of madmen. 
They were goaded on to the contest by the Bank 
of ttie United States, which also forced most of 
the local banks to aid her in the fight. 

But, Mr. President, the detail of extraordinary 
printing which I have exhibited, is not all, nor yet 
the worst part of the exhibition. That amount is 
^6.5,103 25. The expenditures by the president of 
the bank, according to his own voluntary confes- 
sion, for which he renders no vouchers, is $29,605^ 
If he Iiad no shame for the items he has purtially 
specifitd in his blli of parcels, what must we sup- 



tened the "strong man m the morass;" .^nd the ^^^e to be the use to which he applied the sum for 
last tor the distmguislu d love and gratitude she ^i,;^], ],^ rendered no particulars? If a trust be 
owed that ''strong mao, t^hus cruelly fas ened; for | committed to my charge, and I lavish my employ- 
accounting 
for ob- 



uwcu ..i*t ;,uw..5 ...^.., LMus ..,ucu_y lub ci.cu; lor , committed to my charge, and I lavish my e 
his services to the b:inl;s 70,000, reports of the H- ^,..5 ^o,,^y f„r ide-itimatc purposes ace- 
nance Committee, 107,500 at least of Webster's, ; ^ j,;^ specifically for a part, and tt.at part 



and 52,000 of Adams's undelivered speeches: all 
these must go to the credit of Massachusetts. But 
the State of Maine, ahhough last not least, more 
ungrateful to the bank, if possible, than any of her 
sisters, because she set the liist example, after the 
panic, of rebelling- against her at the polls; — the 
State of Maine, although tnoni y was raised by 
thousands and tens of thousands m a sister State, to 
produce a different result, ;;nd although honored 
by tlie bank in a publication of 3,000 speeclies of 
her Senator,ungratefully and ungenero sly refused 
to elect that Senator to the first office in her gift, 
or to return sucli a delegation to Congress as vvoultl 
support the bank. 



jects which would reflect on me no credit, and re- 
fuse to account at all for the remainder, alleging 
tfiat a disclosure would expose iniu cent persons 
' toA'iiupeiation, malign aspersion, and peradven- 
ture to personal vengeance," would my employer 
and pa'''on 'lot Imvc a right to infer the worst of 
me; and could I, under any pretence, expect my 
friends seriously to oli'er for me my reasons for 
concealment as a ground of confidence to the same 
or to anotlier employei? We may well suppose 
that the expenditure for objects entiiely concealed 
was for something even worse than stipends to 
printers and editors. About the time of the re- 



moval of tlie di-posites, the newspapers regularly 
_ Mr. President, was there ever a spectacle ex- j rcport.-d every thing that was going on in the pub- 
hibited before the people that equalled this ap- j iic ofiices. The proceedings of cabinet meetings 
plication of money by the bank to influence and | were hinted at and alluded to in the bank press 



control the elections! Who has the a;;daciiy now 
to admit that the b mk did all this, and to declare 
that the bank never interferes with politics? And 
the money made use of (one-fifth part at least) 
was the property of the. people or' the United 
States. If the enormous expenditure wa', not an 
act of faithlessness tow;;rds other stockholders, 
was it not a high breach of trust to the Govern- 
ment of the United States, whicli owned one-fifth 
of the stock of the bank? 

Situated as the bank was, wliiie it he'd the pub- 
lic deposites, and controlled all public disburse- 
ments, if it had not expended a cent in publishing 
speeches and arguments to be circuiattd among 
the people, it wielded such an influence, as ail 
other pecuniary intercts combined could not 
command. II completely controlled all the pub- 
lic moneyed instilutiors of the country; and 
through them it controlled almost die entiiv- mer- 
cantile and commercial community. "With tins 
tremendous power, it might have been anticipated 
that the bank would be content to go into tlie 
elections Without expending a .single dollar in 
printing, or in the distribution of speeches or do- 
cuments. Almost the entire mercantile and trad- 

I 



throughout the country, as if they were regularly 
informed of every tldnf^ that trai-spired. Was any 
portion of the expenditure money paid to secret in- 
formers, whose business it was to pry into c;ibinet 
secrets i" 

Nor is the expendi'ure of $94, 70S 25 (one-fifth 
of whi h, $18 941 65 belonged directly to the 
people of the United Slates) stated by Mr. Biddle, 
iill ihe expenditures which have bt e 1 i-nade. As 
the recoiil ha-; inany times been fiil.tified, I would 
not be surprised if only a part of the trutli has 
bce:» given in relation to this matter. The ex- 
penses at the Bank of the United States for the 
fir.st half year of 1833, were g63,S61 42; for the 
second half of the same vear the expenses were 
^60,646 02; but forvhefir.'t half year of 1834, the 
same expriises were 'i'"88,714 03, from twenty-five 
to thirt}' thousand dollars boyond the u-ua! amount.. 
These extta expense*^, we iiave a right to pre- 
sume, until they shall be explained, \v^i-q made for 
no honest or laudable [lurpose. 

Besides ilie extraordinary expenses paid for 
printing, have wc not a right to knov;' how many, 
and how Lirgr; sums have been sunk in bad and 
suspended debts.- I'he committee has shown us 



21 



two cases of such lost debt. The one is a debt of 
Jesper Harding, amouhling to '|23,49C 40; the 
olherisadebtof J. W. Webb and M. M.Noah, 
which in several successive discounts, amounted 
to 571,575: tlie committee informs ws, that of this 
debt, 152,975 has been discharged, leaving 55.1 8,600 
still due, on which Webb had given security.by an 
assignment which is absolutely, under the circum- 
stances, worth nothing. They say a part of tbe 
debt has been " discii.arged" — they do not say it 
ever has been paid. 1 have ever considered the 
loan that was made to Webb— a loan which was 
not entered on the books of the bank, until the 
president of tlie bank found the who'e m.itter 
would be ferreted out — as little short of down- 
right bribery. Let the facts be borne in mind, 
that Webb's paper, of most extensive circulation, 
and of u supposed ir.flucnce greater than any 
press in the Union, had steadily opposed the bank, 
ui.til the time this money was furnished; that from 
this time, at first covertly and insidiously, and by 
and bye openly, it advocated the recharter of the 
bank; and what better can we think of this bank, 
than the worst that has been charged upon it.> 

In addition to this. Gales & Seaton, in March 
1833, o\« ed the Bank of the United States more 
than «,80,000. This debt would probably have bten 
as bad, or worse oft", than that of Jesper Harding, 
and Webb, and Noali, had not the influence of the 
bank succeeded in electing these men printers to 
Congress, in dtfiance of the public sentiment. 
Opposition printers were elected in 18'3, in birth 
branches of Congress; and tlie extraordinary fact 
has resulted from this election of printers, hostile 
to the administration, thntthe expanse of the pub- 
lic printing has been increased ])robably ten-fold 
in the Senate, and in the House alone, greater than 
it ever was before in both branches. 

The committee have mentioned two considera- 
ble suspended debts. Tlie loans connected with 
these must be considered in the same light, and 
may well be added to tlie same list, as other " ex- 
traordinary expenditures " made for i^rinting, Sec. 
These loins cannot be considered in any other 
light than the employment of money for the pur- 
pose of bribing the public press. Report speaks 
of other loans of doubtful security, whicli huve 
been "discharged," not by paj ment in full, but 
by secHiity in some soit, often, twenty and thir'y 
cents on the dollar. If such ioaiis had been so 
made and so discharged, in consequence of services 
of any sort done or to be performed for the bank, 
can the whitewasiiing conmiittce t;ive us the assu- 
rance that they were made acquainted with the 
factsi* Might not" the possible danger of expos- 
ing innocent persons to odium or persecution " 
iiave prevented the bank — especially as they 
niight not have been pressed very h.ird on this 
point — from making such an exhibit of this kind of 
accommodations and debts as tlie case required' 

We think we had a riglit to complain of lliR 
report of the committee, not more for the opinions 
it gives than for those it does not give. We com- 
plain of it, that v palliUes where it ougiit to con- 
demn; ihut it omits facts essen'iAl to the case; tliat 
where the committee were unwilling to hazard 
tJKMr own reputation in justification, they 
suffer the party implicated to justify for them- 



selves; that where neither the committee nor the 
bank can make a present pretence of justification, 
they sulfer the bank to tlirow iiself back upon a 
reputation which, previous to the ttppalling de- 
velopments of the last two or thre; years, it was 
allowed to possess. We complain tiiat the com- 
mittee place the eflTect for the cause; that they 
offer as" an excuse for the violent assault of the 
bank on the industry and proi^pcrity-.f the coun- 
try, those very acts of the administration which 
were rendered indispt nsable to the protection of 
the public from the abuses of the bank. We 
complain that the committee should characterize 
the withdrawal of the deposites as a "blow " at 
the bank, whereas the intention of the bank by- 
holding on to the deposites was tlie aiming of a 
more effectual "blow" at the independence of 
the country and the integrity of the Government. 

It was for withdrawing the deposites of the 
public money from an institution whose manage- 
ment had been thus flagitious— an institution 
which, in addition to tlicse enormities withholds 
at this moment from the people millions of their 
money — an institution whose wliole course for the 
last foi"- years has been directed with a view to 
coerce the people into its measures, or bankrupt 
the whole community; it was for legally and con- 
stitutionally arresting the arm of the wrong-doer 
and preventing the great mischief he intended— 
that the President of the United States was un- 
lawfully condemned by a vote of the Senate. 
The people call ;doud that the record of this act 
shall be expunged, wnd they wii! not rest until it 
shall be obliterated. A simple repeal or rescind- 
ing of that act wil! not answer. Nor can the de- 
nial of the imputation of crime to the President 
be now taken as evidence that the passage of the 
resolution was a mere ordinnry matter. 

In the month of June, 1834, the Legislature of 
New Hampshire passed rer^olutions which de- 
clared — 

"That the course of 'he administration and of 
the President was entirely approved; and that the 
latter, by his endeavors to restore the constitution 
to its original purity, by his integrity and firmness, 
by staying the expenditure of the public money 
in an imconstitutional system of internal improve- 
men'.s, by settling the tarift'on a satisfactory basis, 
by his resistance of all measures tending to a dis- 
solution of the Union, by his veto on the bank 
bill, and the stand he has taken against the alarm- 
ing proceedings of the bank, has proved himself te 
he a true disciple of Tiiomas Jeil'erson, the father 
of American democracy. That he only exercised 
a power conferred on him by the constitution, re- 
cognised by the example of all his predecessors, 
when he removed from office the late Secretary of 
the 'I'reasury, (W. J. Duane.) 'thU the present 
Secretary of the Treasury, (Itoger 15. Taney,) in 
removing- the deposites of public money from tbe 
Bank of the United States, has violated neither 
the letter nor th-- spirit of the charter of the bank; 
and that his course is fully approved by the peo- 
ple, and was dem.inded by th-; profligate conduct 
of the officers of th^ bank'. That the Bank of the 
United States ought not to be rechartered, be- 
cause, unconstitutional in its creation, it h:i3 
proved itself to i;e an institution of the most dead- 



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